Digital Banking units to debut with at least 10 services

Digital banking units (DBUs) will soon be launched in 75 districts across the country with at least 10 products and services, which will be scaled up to 30 in due course, sources told FE. These would cover both the asset (loan) and liabilities (deposits) sides.

In a meeting last week, the department of financial services reviewed the progress of the DBUs, aimed at expanding digital banking in mainly rural areas, to ensure customer satisfaction gets top priority at such units, one of the sources said.

The initial set of services at the DBUs could cover facilities like savings, current, recurring deposits and fixed deposits, withdrawal, passbook printing. Customers will have digital kit for mobile and internet banking, debit card, credit card, mass transit system cards, UPI QR code, BHIM Aadhaar and point of sale.

“All the necessary preparations are done. DBUs will have a bouquet of services to choose from but they will have to mandatorily offer at least 10 of these services initially. This number will be raised to 30 once the DBU eco-system picks up pace,” said another source.

Unlike the usual bank branches, the DBUs will be “paperless”. Also, they won’t be counted as branches of a bank but its distinct digital entities, he added. “A typical branch conducts many traditional functions, which also involve paperwork. But here (DBUs), there will be machines and some assistants to carry out various functions digitally,” he added.