In view of millions of unbanked people even in urban areas, the Reserve Bank in a significant move has asked banks to bring all districts in metropolitan areas under the lead bank scheme (LBS) fold.

The lead bank scheme, launched way back in 1969, is an integrated mechanism to extend banking services to the doorsteps of consumers, especially the poor.

The move is part of increasing the scope of its financial inclusion drive to urban areas on one hand and helping the government realise its efforts to plug theloopholes in subsidy deliveries by transferring all the benefits directly to the bank accounts of the target people.

This was disclosed by RBI Governor D Subbarao in the Monetary Policy Statement for 2013-14. He said, the purpose of the LBS extension is to bring all the unbanked urban areas under the banking fold.

Mr. Subbarao said, the Reserve Bank will also introduce a scheme of incentives for banks to encourage them to report detection of counterfeit notes. As per the RBI data, in 2011-12 as many as 5.21 lakh counterfeit notes were detected in the system.