Against the backdrop of false rumours about alleged wrongdoing in a credit cooperative, which recently triggered panic among borrowers in parts of the Marathwada region, Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank Administrative Board Chairman Vidyadhar Anaskar has appealed to cooperative institutions to strengthen financial literacy among their customers.
Referring to the recent incident, Anaskar said queues were witnessed at a few branches of a large and otherwise financially sound institution, not by depositors, but by borrowers rushing to redeem their pledged gold due to unfounded fears.
He stressed that such situations underline the need for customers to assess any news related to their institution strictly on financial fundamentals. “If customers are encouraged to judge information on sound financial parameters, rumours can be curbed and the image of the cooperative sector will remain intact,” he said.
Anaskar pointed out that while financial literacy efforts have so far focused mainly on depositors, the incident has exposed the urgent need to extend such initiatives to borrowers as well, particularly gold-loan customers, at the time of loan sanction.
He emphasised that institutions must clearly explain loan procedures to illiterate customers from the outset and ensure complete transparency in operations to build lasting trust.
He also expressed concern that several poor sugarcane-cutting workers, anxious to redeem their pledged gold, were forced to borrow from private moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates. “It is unfortunate that rumours are pushing cooperative customers back into the clutches of moneylenders,” he said, urging all cooperative financial institutions across the State to launch comprehensive financial literacy campaigns, especially in rural areas.
