oppn parties Cooperative Banks Must Be Fully Regulated By The RBI

News Snippets

  • ED has issued a showcause notice to Xiaomi India, two of its senior officials and three foreign banks for FEMA violations to the tune of Rs 5551cr
  • India's South-West coast to be hit by very severe Cyclone Biparjoy which will intensify in the next 36 hours
  • PM Modi pays tributes to Birsa Munda on his death anniversary
  • CBI forms SIT to probe violence in Manipur
  • Coal mine collapses in Dhanbad, three dead and scores feared trapped
  • Death threats for Sharad Pawar & Sanjay Raut, probe ordered and security tightened
  • Akhilesh Yadav says law & order situation is out of control in UP
  • Diesel (8.22 million tonnes), petrol (3.35 million tonnes) consumption hits a new high in May
  • Congress' Kamal Nath Sandesh Yatra will begin in Madhya Pradesh on June 15
  • Congress rubbishes reports of Sachin Pilot starting a new outfit, says they are just rumours
  • Delhi Police take women wrestler who had complained against WFI chief B B S Singh to federation office
  • IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar says government will regulate the AI space to keep digital citizens safe
  • Stocks turn negative on Friday: Sensex loses 223 points to 62625 and Nifty 71 points to 18563
  • WTC final: If India can keep the Aussie lead to below 400, they can still make a match of it
  • WTC final: Indian bowlers get their act right in the second innings but Aussies race to a lead of nearly 300 for the loss of 4 wickets
Fresh flare-up in Manipur as 3 persons were shot dead in a Kuki village inKangpopki district
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Cooperative Banks Must Be Fully Regulated By The RBI

By Linus Garg

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank (MMCB) scandal in 2002 was a clear signal that cooperative banks should not remain outside the strict regulatory purview of the Reserve bank of India and should embrace core banking to integrate with the banking ecosystem. But apart from canceling the banking license of MMCB in 2012, the RBI did little else to include these banks under its regulatory fold. Hence, it is not surprising that the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMCB) is now in deep trouble.

In the case of MMCB, the bank had loaned substantial amounts to the rogue stockbroker Ketan Parekh who used the funds to rig stocks and initiate a bull run on the bourses. It had lent Rs 1500cr to Parekh when other banks were not allowed to lend more than Rs 15cr to a single stockbroker at that time. When the bubble burst, the bank found that its capital was wiped out. PMCB is suffering the same fate. It has under-reported bad loans and is now not in a position to recover the money.

Due to political compulsions (most cooperative banks are directly or indirectly controlled by influential state politicians), cooperative banks have always been regulated with a soft hand. On paper, both the state government and the RBI have regulatory powers over these entities. But since they are not following core banking, their reporting systems are outdated and cross-verification is very difficult. Hence, these banks indulge in all kinds of malpractices.

But since they accept public deposits, they should be regulated like all other banks. The RBI should apply all its normal banking norms to these banks and immediately bring them under core banking. It is wrong to think that they cannot bring any harm to the system since they are very small banks. The cooperative societies' laws must be synced with other laws such as the Banking Regulation Act to give the RBI the powers to regulate these banks like all other banks.