New Delhi: The government is working with banks to bolster rural credit through flagship schemes, as part of which regional rural banks (RRBs) will seek to expand their customer base from about 10% of total depositors at present.Other measures include full integration of the Grameen Credit Score with the JanSamarth portal for faster loan processing and aligning state schemes with banks, said people familiar with the matter."While banks will look to strengthen their business correspondent networks for last-mile credit delivery, RRBs in particular will aim to diversify towards investment credit in agri hotspot areas and further pursue promotion of digital lending platforms like e-KCC (electronic Kisan Credit Card)," said an official, requesting anonymity.As per latest data, the total business of all 28 RRBs has crossed ₹12 lakh crore and they collectively serve 324 million deposit accounts and 32 million loan accounts.According to a survey by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) in May, about 21.9% of rural households borrow only from non-institutional sources. The Rural Economic Conditions and Sentiments Survey found that the proportion of households reporting an increase in income during the last year plunged to 29.6%, the lowest level since September 2024."About 70.7% of rural households, however, expect their income situation to improve during the next year, indicating that they expect the adverse impact of the war in West Asia to dampen income and employment prospects only in the short run, and that could be one of the reasons why consumption demand in the rural economy remains so resilient so far," the survey said.Banks have also been asked to scale up lending based on the Grameen Credit Score (GCS) and its complete integration with the JanSamarth Portal.Under Phase I, GCS has been developed using existing data attributes such as rural and agriculture-related borrowings available with credit information companies. Adding more parameters is expected to improve access to formal credit for the rural population, including small farmers.