Funds transfer operations : boon or bane to the viability of rural financial intermediaries

The specific questions this paper aims to answer are: (I) What is the structure of funds transfer operations of ruralbased branches of banks? Is it from one branch to another? Or is it from one branch to the head office? (2) What factors determine the volume of funds transferred from one branch to another of the same bank? (3) What is the impact of funds transfer operations on the savings mobilization efforts of rural-based financial intermediaries? The next section discusses some theoretical considerations regarding funds transfer operations and savings mobilization. Section IiI presents some empirical results which draw heavily on Relampagos (1988). Some policy implications are discussed in the last section.