Axis Bank launches Urban Financial Inclusion initiative in Delhi NCR

Company Brief

New Delhi, February 25, 2010

Axis Bank, India's third largest private bank, today announced the launch of their Urban Financial Inclusion initiative in Delhi NCR. The Meerabagh Branch of the Bank will function as the nodal branch for this Urban Financial Inclusion Initiative. Axis Bank has partnered with Janalakshmi Social Services (JSS) as their Business Correspondents to roll out the initiative.

This launch follows the Bank's successful implementation of their urban financial inclusion initiatives in Bengaluru and Chennai. The Bank has enrolled over 55,000 customers with "No Frills Savings Account" in these cities through JSS in the last 5 months.

Mr. S. K. Mitra - President, Agri Business & Rural Banking - Axis Bank, while speaking at the occasion said, "Axis Bank is committed to being a total solutions bank and strives to provide innovative, low cost financial products and services to customers. Financial Inclusion often raises connotations of rural poverty and rural poor, but the concept is equally relevant for urban centers. There are savings, credit and remittance requirements of unbanked and under-banked population that needs to be addressed in these centers too. We have recognized these needs and are undertaking specific Financial Inclusion initiatives to address them."

The Bank, in the first phase, will offer No Frills Savings Bank account along with cash transactions facilities to the unbanked and under banked population in Delhi NCR. In the next phase, the Bank will introduce other financial products and services to these customers thereby covering the financial and investment need gaps through appropriate products and services.

A step-by-step 'how-it-works':

1. Axis Bank opens a no-frills-zero-balance savings account for the customer and issues a Closed User Group Debit Card to the customer as part of the Instakit that is handed over to the customer during the enrolment process. The account is in an inactive state at this time and has a debit freeze on it, thus preventing any withdrawals to happen till the KYC Compliance is ensured.

2. The customer is assisted in filling out a simple one page account opening form and his signature is captured therein in either English or the vernacular language. The necessary KYC documents are also collected from the customer at this time.

3. The filled in Account Opening Form along with the KYC documents are sent to the nodal Axis Bank Branch which does the KYC verification and thereafter sends the details to their Central Processing Unit for account activation, whereby the debit freeze is removed from the customer accounts.

4. The EDC terminals are conveniently placed for the customer and are handled by Janalakshmi Field Executives. When the customer has to conduct a transaction, he swipes his debit card on the EDC terminal, keys in his PIN number and inputs the transaction amount. The transaction once authenticated gets executed and a transaction slip gets printed which confirms the successful completion of the transaction. A copy of the transaction slip is given to the customer for his records.

The customer's account is hosted in the Bank's Core Banking system and the account in the Bank's CBS is updated on a real time online basis as soon as a cash transaction is executed at the EDC terminal.

For further information, please contact:

Axis Bank

Anand H. Mugad

Tel: 022-67071589

Email: anand.mugad@axisbank.com