oppn parties Cooperative Banks Must Be Fully Regulated By The RBI

News Snippets

  • Calcutta HC said that an accused in a NDPS case is not entitled to default bail if a charge sheet, even without the chemical report, is filed within time
  • 21 killed in a hooch tragedy in Amritsar. Police arrested 10 persons
  • Incoming CJI Justice B R Gavai said that he will always strive for social and political justice
  • Although US Prez Donald trump once again claimed his administration brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, India clearly refuted the claim and said it was workd out by the DGMO
  • Centre tells the Supreme Court that since women are not in combat roles, there has to be a separate selection board for them
  • India briefs 70 nations on Operation Sindoor
  • PM Modi asks Pakistan to vacate illegally-occupied portions of Kashmir
  • PM Modi tells Pakistan that it faces annihilation if it does not stop supporting terror
  • PM Modi visits Adampur IAF base, poses before the S-400 surface-to-air defence system to destrot Pakistan's claim that it had bombed the base and destroyed the defence system
  • 5 US companies make offers to GAIL for stake in LNG projects
  • Retail inflation dipped to 3.2% in April, the lowest since July 2019
  • Stocks tumble on Tuesday: After the all-time single-day gain on Monday, stocks lost heavily on Tuesday - Sensex went down by 1281 points to 81148 and Nifty lost 346 points to 24578
  • Indian tour to England: A new look Indian team with a new skipper will be announced when the selectors meet later this week in view of the retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin
  • IPL: Most overseas players to return and teams likely to be full strength
  • Sharad Pawar calls for an all-party meet to discuss Operation Sindoor, says such matter cannot be publicly discussed in Parliament as the Congress had earlier demanded
PM Modi warns Pakistan - stop supporting terror or face annihilation /////// Also asks Pakistan to vacate illegally-occupied portion of Kashmir
oppn parties
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.