“We might be small but we are healthy”, said Vishal Singh who took over the reins of Tapindu Urban Cooperative bank last year from Gopal Giri in one of the smoothest transitions of power seen in the cooperative world.
One fine morning Giriji phoned me saying ” I have to oversee the affairs of Tapindu Bank,’ Vishal remembered nostalgically. Perhaps Vishal’s loss of power as witnessed in NCCF and other cooperatives, influenced Giri to help the son of one of his mentors late Ajit Singh.
In one year Vishal has really put in hard labour to take the bank to newer heights. Today the bank claims Rs 21 crore in deposit and it was able to notch a profit of Rs. 71 lakh this year.
Starting in the year 2000, Tapendu Urban Co-op Bank has never looked back and consistently maintained a growth rate of 20 percent. The bank has never ever defaulted on the RBI norms.Net NPA is nil though gross NPA does exist and the process of recovery is on”, said Vishal talking to Indian Cooperative.
Neither Directors nor their relatives have ever taken any loan or advance from the bank. Beginning with an initial capital of Rs 30 lakh, Tapindu Bank is going to have Debit card and ATM facilities soon, said Vishal.
By the year 2017, we are going to have our own ATM machine. We have also planned to open our second branch next year, a confident Vishal said.
Tapindu Bank’s achievements matter all the more as it is successfully operating in an atmosphere of the state of Bihar. The state produced several top-notch cooperative leaders in the past who became national level players. But they failed to ignite the cooperative movement in their state largely due to uncooperative govt.