Surat based Prime Co-op Bank, which is known in UCB circles as a bank having a number of successful acquisitions of weak UCBs to its credit, is itself readying to leave the UCB fold. The limitation of working within the co-op banking framework is being blamed for the same.
It was not in the long past that Shivalik Mercantile Cooperative Bank switched over to the commercial bank category. Now Gujarat (Surat) based Prime Cooperative Bank has decided to convert itself into a small finance bank and will pass a resolution to this effect in the Annual General Meeting to be organized on 2nd September 2021, informed the bank’s former Chairman and present director Anand Gokul Bakshi.
Bakshi revealed it to Indian Cooperative on the phone. “We want to grow and expand our footprint across pan India but it would not be possible with the cooperative bank tag, so we decided to convert ourselves into SFB”, Bakshi said.
“The process for converting into SFB has been started and it will take a couple of years to complete the formalities. With the conversion into SFB, it will be easy for us to expand our network”, underlined former Chairman.
The chairman also nurses the ambition of competing with the big players like HDFC and ICICI Bank. ” We see a lot of scope in SFB”, added Bakshi who is the son of founder Chairman Gokul Bakshi.
He further added that UCB faced a number of issues in running the bank as a cooperative entity. As a Small Finance Bank, we will avail various facilities to attract more and more customers and would be able to get government business.
Prime Cooperative Bank has also been credited with the tag of ‘Magic of Merger’. Year after year, Prime Cooperative Bank sucked in a total seven weak & sick banks through mergers. The Chairman, however, claimed that the old staff of merged banks were retained. “In fact a mere change at top management led to these old staff convert their banks into profit centres”, underlined Bakshi.
Recently, Prime Cooperative Bank took over Baroda Traders Co-op Bank and it was its 7th merger. Talking about the recent merger, Bakshi stated that the bank is 50 years old and has two branches with a business mix of over Rs 35 crore. The total advances of the bank are 17 crore.
The Prime UCB has a business mix of over Rs 2400 crore and earned a net profit of Rs 21 crore in the 2020-21 FY. The bank’s net NPA is Zero and has a network of 38 branches across Gujarat.
Very happy to know the progress made by Prime Bank and convey my best wishes for achieving greater heights.
I had the opportunity of meeting Shri Gokul Bakshi several times and we used to discuss several issues faced by cooperative banks . My best regards to the founder chairman and best wishes to Prime Bank.