IOB has taken up the implementation of Financial Inclusion Plan in letter and spirit. Of the 1273 villages given to it under the financial inclusion plan the Bank has already covered 751 villages and the remaining 522 villages will be covered before Dec 2011, Well ahead of the deadline of March 2012. The Bank has also extended credit facilities to the account holders.

The recently Bank launched the ‘IOB Smile Campaign’ under which the entire staff of the Bank, again on a Sunday visited hamlets and busties across the country spreading smiles and banking. The response was overwhelming proving that the poor are bankable.

The financial inclusion plan is also being implemented through the Bank’s Sampoorna Scheme which seeks to bring total village development in select villages focusing not only on agriculture but also on education, health, rural tourism and ecology in the villages. The scheme has benefitted villages affected by natural disasters such as the Tsunami disaster.

The scheme will be extended to more villages to mark the Platinum Jubilee. On the inaugural day the Bank is launching the IOB Bhoomi Laxmi to enable landless farmers below the poverty line to buy agricultural land.

The Bank is adopting innovative and unconventional approaches to reach the unreached. On December 5, 2010 the Chairman and Managing Director led the Executive Directors, other executives and the entire workforce of over 26000 on a Sunday on a door to door campaign of Walk-in banking. This initiative has generated a lot of interest and large number of accounts have been opened. The Bank has made this an ongoing customer relationship programme.