Tuesday, June 03, 2025 | 01:46 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

Hiccups over the last mile: Biz correspondent model may need overhauling

The BC model is essentially a regulator-led effort that not only aims to make financial services accessible through a branchless banking facility, but also supports the national agenda of job creation

Business correspondent model
premium

Raghu Mohan
Tucked away in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Annual Report for 2021-22 is this nugget: the total number of outlets serviced by business correspondents (BCs) in the country shot up to 3,257,251 in December 2021, from just 519,147 a year before — an increase of 527 per cent! And there’s only a footnote by way of explanation for the uptick in BCs: “There is a significant increase in data reported by a few private banks.”

Incredible as these numbers are, they should be seen in the context of the churn underway in the BC world.

Launched in 2006, the