Out of 24.67 crore households in the country, only about 14.48 crore or 58.70 per cent households had access to banking services. Further, of the 16.78 crore rural households only about 9.14 crore or 54.46 per cent households were availing of banking services. But that is only one aspect of the financial exclusion story.
Second, the enhanced credit support measures, including the covered bond purchase programme, contributed decisively to improving the funding situation of euro area banks. For instance, issuance and secondary market activity for covered bonds began to revive in mid2009, and bank bond spreads for unsecured funding have fallen considerably.