Calling it a sectoral discrimination, the apex body of co-op banks in the country NAFSCOB’s Managing Director has charged that RBI does not entertain the request of co-op banks’ representatives to meet and listen to them.
The NAFSCOB MD Bhima Subramaniyam said this in the wake of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das holding a meeting with the representatives of 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 last week.
While appreciating RBI’s initiative to meet leaders of the urban cooperative banking sector, Bhima felt that similar opportunities should also be given to co-op banks which include hundreds of DCCBs and several state co-op banks in the country.
Bhima expressed his anguish on the social media “RBI is reluctant to meet leaders from RCBs/STCCS and NAFSCOB. They were advised to meet only NABARD. This is a typical case of Sectoral Discrimination!”
It bears recall that RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das led a team of many officers including M Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, Executive Directors S C Murmu, Saurav Sinha, Jayant Kumar Dash, Neeraj Nigam along with a few senior officials of the apex bank.
Besides RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe, several UCB leaders were present. These included Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta, Maharashtra UCBs Federation Chairman Ajay Barmecha, Karnataka UCBs federation Senior Director Rudre Gowda, Tamil Nadu UCBs Federation President T S Sarathy, Uttar Bharat UCBs Federation Chairman R C Verma, TJSB Sahakari Bank MD Sunil Sathe, Guntur Cooperative Urban Bank Govindraju Sadanand, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank CEO Rekha Kulkarni and others.
Two major outcomes of the meeting include–RBI will nominate a senior officer who will be the single point of contact for all issues related to UCBs and the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) meetings will henceforth be held once in six months instead of once in a year.
Co-op banks are also beset with a number of problems and need urgent attention of the govt especially that of the RBI. The issue of three tiers Vs two tiers has practically divided the fraternity into two parts.
Another issue is the neglect of NAFSCOB in the ongoing computerization of PACS. The MD says that the database of PACS is mainly maintained by NAFSCOB yet it is kept out of the initiative on “PACS Computerisation” which is incomprehensible”, he says.
NAFSCOB is no less tormented by the fact that a group of co-operators are trying to create a parallel and separate apex body of co-op banks other than NAFSCOB.