Women self-help groups (SHGs) across the country, which have about 10 crore women as members, have had a tough time opening bank accounts as it required a few weeks and humongous paperwork.

Now, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) has come out with an innovative solution in collaboration with Canara Bank which will help in opening bank accounts of SHGs in 15 minutes and reduce the turnaround time for loans for SHG members to just 24 hours from 3-4 weeks earlier.

This step will benefit 10 crore women SHG members who are part of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). In an exclusive Interview with ETBFSI, Rajesh Bansal, CEO of RBIH, explained how the digital innovation for SHGs is shaping up and how the RBI’s innovation wing is shifting current transactions worth Rs 40,000 crore to digital and creating credit history for 10 crore women. Bansal said the five leading banks will also use the RBIH initiative to reach out to SHG women members.

During the interaction, Bansal also highlighted other projects like frictionless credit and the major innovations in the pipeline such as dealing with fraud in the banking sector.

He revealed that the RBIH is also exploring avenues to support nano-entrepreneurs, particularly women, through micro-loans facilitated by UPI data insights. It is also partnering with NBFCs to extend microcredit to nano-preneurs and gig workers and closely working with FinTechs.

Watch this interview to explore the RBIH’s digital innovation for SHG women. Find out how SHG members open their group’s bank accounts and get loans. Also, gain an insight into how RBIH is collaborating with FinTechs and what is the pipeline of RBIH for the next two years.