EPFO ropes in 15 additional banks for direct transactions

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation on Tuesday entered into agreements with 15 additional public and private sector banks for direct transaction, paving way for payment of nearly Rs 12,000 crore in annual collections by the retirement fund body and enabling direct access to employers who maintain their accounts with these banks.

This will raise the total number of empanelled banks doing direct transactions with EPFO to 32.

EPFO has an active subscriber base of nearly 80 million and over 7.8 million pensioners availing social security benefits.

“We are focused on providing ease of living for members and ease of doing business for employers,” labour and employment minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.

“With the continued support of our banking partners, employers, and members, we are determined to take strong strides toward realizing the vision of a Viksit Bharat, while further strengthening our social security framework,” he added.

In FY 2024-25, EPFO collected over Rs 3.41 lakh crore in contributions remitted by employers through 1.25 crore electronic challan cum returns (ECRs) till 20th March 2025.

The central board of trustees of EPFO, in its 236th Meeting held in November 2024, approved the empanelment of all agency banks listed with RBI and scheduled commercial banks with collection share more than or equal to 0.20% of total EPFO collection as additional banks authorised to collect EPFO contributions.