Investigating the Impact of ICT-Enabled Business Correspondent Model on Financial Inclusion

Abstract

In India, the business correspondent model was introduced to improve banking outreach in remote and rural areas. Although the BC Model struggled in the initial years, but in the last decade it has made continuous strides and currently provides banking services in more than 95% of villages in India. This research paper is targeted at investigating the impact of the BC Model on Önancial inclusion. To fulÖll this objective, Örstly, on the basis of theoretical support, we identiÖed the factors that a§ect the usage of banking services through the business correspondent agents and then the impact of the identiÖed factors on the banking usage behavior have been empirically tested using PLS-SEM. The Öndings reveal that the a§ordability of banking services at BC point, proximity of BC agents and time saved in accessing banking services through BC agent exerts a signiÖcant positive impact on banking usage behavior.