Access to financial services in rural areas of Punjab

The availability of quality financial services in rural areas is extremely important for the growth of economy as this enables a large number of rural households to meet their financial needs. Despite the efforts by government, a large proportion of India's rural population has limited or no access to financial service. This paper analyses access to formal and informal financial services in the rural areas and the level of satisfaction with respect to formal and informal financial services. Survey was carried out in ten villages of district Ludhiana in Punjab and it was found that the most significant factor for selecting informal financial services over formal financial services was easy availability of finances followed by negotiable rate of interest, easy access, personal attention and no need for documentation. Majority of the respondents still use the financial services for basic purposes like savings and fulfilling their social obligations like marriage of their children etc. The respondents were aware that finances were available at much lower costs from formal financial service providers like banks and yet they preferred services of money lenders.