Assessing the Most Ambitious Public Financial Inclusion Drive in History

The Department of Financial Services (DFS) in India's Ministry of Finance, MicroSave Consulting (MSC), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation designed a survey to understand the coverage and quality of Bank Mitrs (business correspondents or agents) across a sample of sub-service areas, and to understand customers’ experience with Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), an initiative launched in 2014 to provide all households in the country with banking facilities by January 26, 2015.

This study was conducted in 41 districts in nine states. A total of 2,039 Bank Mitrs (BMs) locations and 8,789 beneficiaries were surveyed. BMs were assessed on dimensions such as availability based on the physical address and contact details provided to DFS by banks, transaction-readiness and branding.