RBI Guv asks UCBs to provide banking services at grassroot level

Mumbai: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday asked cooperative banks to strengthen governance, adopt appropriate business strategies and explore suitable technology solutions to enable them to sustain and grow.

The Governor had held a meeting with the National Federation of Urban Co-operative Banks and Credit Societies Limited (NAFCUB), select Federations of UCBs from various States and the CEOs of select UCBs.

In a statement, the RBI said Das, in his introductory remarks acknowledged the important role played by UCBs in furthering financial inclusion and supporting economic growth by providing banking services at the grassroot level.

He further stated that RBI is committed to having a strong, robust and resilient UCB sector and for that there is a need for all the stakeholders to work together in the spirit of cooperation.

"He advised UCBs and their Federations to strengthen governance and risk management, adopt appropriate business strategies and explore suitable technology solutions to enable them to sustain and grow their business and serve their customers, keeping in mind the interest of the depositors," the RBI said.

The participants shared their inputs and suggestions regarding regulatory and supervisory matters applicable to urban co-operative banks.

It was decided that the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) meetings will henceforth be held once in six months instead of once in a year.

It was also decided that RBI will nominate a senior officer who will be the single point of contact for all issues related to UCBs and a formal interaction with the designated senior officer would be held quarterly, the RBI said.

RBI had in December stated that it will prepare a four-tier regulatory system for the classification of urban cooperative banks. It has also released norms on net worth and capital adequacy of banks. It then said that the guidelines formulated on the basis of deposits of individual banks will come into force immediately. In the existing framework, Urban Co-operative Banks are classified into Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Today's meeting was also attended by Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao, and executive directors S C Murmu, Saurav Sinha, Jayant Kumar Dash, Neeraj Nigam along with a few senior officials of the RBI.