Patna, (Bihar Times): Bihar has the highest number of small borrowers in the country. Small borrowers’ accounts constitute 96 per cent of all accounts and 57 per cent of all bank credit.
A Reserve Bank’s Survey of Small Borrowal Accounts, 2006 says that this is the trend in Jharkhand, Assam and Orissa. The share of small borrowers in gross bank credit in these states is 38 per cent, 42 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively. If the share of small borrowers in the banking system is high in low income states, it is also perhaps because capital is scarce in these regions.
Small borrower accounts in the country as a whole is 90.4 per cent.
The correlation between the share of small borrowings in bank credit on the one hand and poverty levels on the other is not as significant as the former’s correlation with per capita income. This shows that the really needy are still out of the banking network. With small loan accounts falling as a proportion of all accounts since 1999, the relationship between banking and poverty alleviation may further weaken.
