Features of the EASE Program
- The government is urging rural banks to increase lending to sectors such as small businesses, education, housing, and tractors.
- In order to make it simpler to lend money to the education sector, the government is considering raising the guarantee limit for education loans from Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
- The government’s aim is to enhance the profitability of Rural Regional Banks (RRBs) and promote increased credit availability to rural consumers for education, housing, and micro-businesses.
- The government’s plan is to improve the profitability of RRBs and increase credit access to rural consumers for education, housing, and micro-businesses.
- This will be achieved by guiding RRBs to become more customer-friendly and competitive, and by leveraging their rural network and local understanding.
Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) Program
The full form of the EASE Program is Enhanced Access and Service Excellence (EASE) Program. In January 2018, the Indian government and Public Sector Banks (PSBs) launched the EASE Reforms Agenda, which was commissioned by the Indian Banks’ Association and authored by the Boston Consulting Group. The Indian Banks’ Organisation, established in 1946, represents Indian banks and financial institutions in Mumbai. The EASE Agenda’s goal is to achieve CLEAN and SMART banking. The EASE Reforms Index evaluates each PSB’s performance using more than 120 objective indicators and provides a transparent grading approach that enables banks to identify their strengths and areas for improvement. The objective is to foster healthy competition among PSBs and drive modernization efforts by emphasizing data analytics, automation, and digitization. The EASE program has been providing a common set of reform objectives for PSBs since its inception, with the aim of enhancing profitability, asset quality, customer service, and digital capabilities through new-age reforms.