State Bank of India has opened county's first Customer Service Points (CSP) where urban poor including petty businessmen can open a bank account with as low as one one rupee.

People can deposit and withdraw amounts as small as one rupee, earn interest and get access to all other services offered by the bank, said Diwakar Gupta, Deputy Managing Director, SBI, who inaugurated a kiosk along with D Prasada Rao, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Revenue.

"SBI has already opened over 70 lakh accounts under financial inclusion in the rural areas. This new initiative will further drive the expansion," Gupta said.

In the last 20 days, over 7,000 accounts were opened at the kiosks. SBI's target is to open over one lakh accounts with Re 1 as deposit by this fiscal end, he added.

The SBI has put in place biometric smartcards to operate the new facility which was set up part of its national rollout of CSP which would function as a mini bank branch with a BC available on all working days. He would be equipped with a laptop that is connected to the SBI's core banking network.

Through a sensor, the fingerprints on biometric cards are recognised for identification purposes.

The bank initially launched 20 CSPs in various parts of the city targeting the urban poor.

This is part of the national rollout of CSPs by SBI in association with Geosansar, bank's business correspondent (BC) partner.