The Reserve Bank of India organized the 36th Standing Advisory Committee meeting at Mumbai, Maharashtra on Thursday, which was attended by co-operators associated with the urban cooperative banking sector.
The meeting was chaired by the RBI Deputy Governor M. Rajeshwar Rao and was attended by Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta, Maharashtra UCBs Federation Chairman Ajay Barmecha, CEO Ms. Sayali Bhoir, Andhra Pradesh UCBs Federation Secretary Chalasani Raghavendra Rao, Cosmos Bank Chairman Milind Kale, SVC Cooperative Bank Vice-Chairman Arun D. Mavinkurve, NKGSB Bank MD Sunil Panse, senior officials of RBI, Cooperative Registrar of a few states and others.
Soon after the meeting, talking to the Indian Cooperative correspondent, Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta said, “It was a fruitful meeting and many issues pertaining to the cooperative sector came up for discussion. The Deputy Governor and RBI officials listened to our issues patiently and also showed keen interest in resolving them”.
“We are hopeful that we will get good news soon. Besides, we also thank the RBI officials for resolving the long pending issues including allowing UCBs to open branches, make OTS of outstanding loans, designated nodal officers in RBI for regular interaction with UCBs and others”, said Mehta on the phone.
Another participant, Ajay Barmecha said, “We are happy that RBI is calling the meeting of the Standing Advisory Committee twice in a year. The first meeting was held in January 2023 and the second was organized today (Thursday). The RBI officials listened to our issues patiently and were very positive”.
On behalf of Maharashtra UCBs federation, Barmecha raised many issues related to the cooperative sector. The issues included, allowing UCBs to transfer remaining net profit to the BDDR, Enhancing the quantum for gold loan bullet payments to Rs 5 lakh–Rs 10 lakh, allowing the banks to grant loans to directors with certain terms and conditions, FSWM UCBs must be allowed to offer ASBA facility, net worth criteria for net banking should be reduced from Rs 50 crore to Rs 25 crore, limit for maximum unsecured loan to individuals raised upt Rs 10 lakh and others.
They also demanded that there should be no publicity of penalties by the RBI on UCBs through a press release.
Reacting to the SAC meeting, Chalasani Raghavendra Rao said that the meeting was very positive and issues related to UCBs were discussed.
On behalf of Andhra Pradesh UCBs Federation, we raised many issues including, the limit for housing loans granted for construction or purchase under the priority sector and the amount for repairs to properties eligible for the priority sector to be increased, urgent modifications needed in achieving the target for UCBs under PSL, granting scheduled status to UCBs which have been stopped for the last 18 years and many others.
During the meeting, Scenta Joy was also present, who has been designated as a nodal officer for all policy related issues to UCBs.