Kolkata, Aug 23 (IANS): Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the central government's financial inclusion programme will prevent people from getting fleeced by "unreliable" financial institutions.

"Our banks have traditionally been brick and mortar branches that cannot reach every village. But now the system has moved beyond that. Banks have taken over the initiative of having private individuals as banking correspondents who visit every home in order to bring people into the structured banking network," Jaitley said at an event here.

"It is the expansion of this segment -- which will help keep people away from investing in otherwise unreliable agencies -- which has created problems in many states like West Bengal," said Jaitley.

The finance minister's remarks come in the backdrop of several deposit-seeking firms, including the Saradha group, going bust, and in turn ruining lakhs of investors - mostly from rural areas - across states like Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Assam.

Jaitley also said that the Narendra Modi government's 'Jan Dhan Yojana' and the recently launched social security schemes have linked a large section of the so far unbanked people to the banking network.