The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has strongly opposed the move by State Bank of India (SBI) to hand over regular banking services to the private sector firm Reliance Money Infrastructure Ltd (RMIL).

In a statement, general secretary of the AIBEA, CH Venkatachalam, said the agreement provides for RMIL to identify borrowers, collect, process and submit loan applications, promote credit groups, take up post-sanction monitoring, follow-up and recovery.

While the Business Correspondent model itself is wrought with risks and deficiencies, it is really atrocious that RMIL had been handed over such vital banking functions by a major public sector bank, said Venkatachalam.

It is strange that while the RBI itself has not chosen to give corporates the licences to start their own bank, the SBI management has brought RMIL into dealing with regular banking services, he added.