A few years ago who would have believed that Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank- the jewel among the cooperative banks would struggle to obtain banking licence. Controlled by Ajit Pawar men the Bank looked sure-footed till yesterday.
But it has not been able to obtain a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India. The bank had to obtain it by the close of March.
The take-over of Bank had generated such a political storm in the State that at one point of time it seemed to lead to an end of relation between the two ruling allies-Cong and NCP. But the deft move by senior Pawar saved the situation.
When an administrator was appointed it was thought that MSCB would be put on track sooner than later.
The cooperative department of the Maharashtra govt has expressed its hope that the apex bank would soon issue the licence. According to the dept. officials, MSCB has met the conditions laid down by the RBI and Nabard.
There are more than a hundred banks that have failed to get the RBI licence and the case of MSCB is not unusual.
In the event of these banks not being able to get the RBI licence , they have no choice but to transform into a cooperative credit society or unite with another bank.
The MSCB’s failure to obtain the licence has seriously affected its reputation.
There are certain things, however, that present a different picture of the bank. For example, MSCB has risk weighted assets worth nearly ten thousand crore and its non-performing assets count a mere couple of hundreds of crore.