The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has widened its regulatory action by imposing monetary penalties on five cooperative banks for various compliance and statutory violations detected during inspections based on their financial position as of March 31, 2025.
The highest penalty of Rs 11 lakh was imposed on Arvind Sahakari Bank Ltd., Katol (Maharashtra) for violating RBI directions on Housing Finance for UCBs and Interest Rate on Deposits. The bank had sanctioned loans to builders/contractors for land acquisition and paid additional interest to certain ineligible depositors.
Rajnandgaon Kendriya Sahakari Bank Maryadit, Chhattisgarh, was fined Rs 1 lakh for paying additional interest to ineligible depositors, violating RBI’s deposit interest norms.
Earlier, RBI had penalised Shri Baria Nagarik Sahakari Bank, Gujarat (Rs 1 lakh) for failing to conduct internal audits, The City Co-operative Bank, Hassan (Rs 50,000) for delays in uploading KYC records to CKYCR, and Mandya DCCB, Karnataka (Rs 50,000) for holding shares in other cooperative societies in violation of the Banking Regulation Act.
RBI clarified that the penalties relate solely to regulatory and statutory compliance deficiencies and do not affect the validity of customer transactions or preclude further supervisory action.
