Umesh Chand Asawa, CEO of A.P.Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank -a Multi State Scheduled Bank has been elected as the Member of the managing committee of Indian Banks Association (IBA) in its 70th AGM held recently in Mumbai. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was the chief guest on the occasion.
Soon after getting elected to the board of IBA, Asawa said “I feel proud to have been elected to the board to represent the cooperative banking sector. I will focus on issues related to the sector “, he said.
”We can’t disclose how many votes we got but Chief Executive of Nagpur Nagarik Sahakari Bank Subhash.W.Godbole contested the election against me and he lost”, Asawa said to this correspondent.
There are several challenges related to the cooperative banking sector that need to be resolved. On behalf of cooperative banks I will present all the issues including discrimination between co-ops and private banks, the CEO AP Mahesh Bank said.
Asawa said there are 42 leading urban cooperative banks who all are members of Indian Banks Association having a voting right to elect their member for the board.
Readers would recall that NKGSB MD Chintamani Nadkarni and the MD of Kalupur Commercial Cooperative Bank are also on the board of India Banks Association.
Asawa has been working with the Mahesh Bank for more than three decades and had earlier served in various capacities.
The IBA,- the apex body of all banks in the country was set up in 1946 to work proactively for the growth of a healthy, professional and forward looking banking body.
The IBA represents 237 banking companies in the country and its managing committee consists of 31 members, including Chief Executives of nationalised, private sector, foreign and cooperative banks.
A P Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank popularly known as Mahesh Bank was registered as a Primary Co-operative Society on 30th June, 1977. The Bank commenced its operations on 9th August, 1978 and the bank presently has 43 branches.