Branch on Wheels, which said to be the first of its kind initiative in the banking sector in India, is a mobile branch with an ATM that provides basic banking products and services.
The services offered by the mobile branch include savings accounts, loans, cash deposit/withdrawal, account balance enquiries, statement printing and funds transfer/DD/PO collections, among others.
It will operate at specific timings of the day in pre- identified, unbanked villages through a van that will be stationed at specified locations.
It will have a GPS tracking system, laptops with 3G connections, LED TV, a safe, a printer, public announcement system, a UV Lamp that detects forged cheques, a note counting-cum-authentication machine that identifies fake currency notes and a unique low weight ATM.
ICICI Bank executive director Rajiv Sabharwal said that the bank has always tried to take a holistic approach to provide financial services in rural and remote areas.
"In line with this approach, we have already launched 308 Gramin branches across the country to provide basic banking services in unbanked villages and plan to scale it up to 500 this fiscal," Sabharwal added.
As of 31 July 2013, the lender provided banking services across nearly 15,000 villages and had 16 million basic savings accounts. The bank manages 3382 branches, including over 660 in rural areas and 11,000 ATMs.
