Chairman of one of the largest salary earners cooperative banks of Maharashtra- Municipal Cooperative Bank Vishvas Shankarwar who doubles as BMC Deputy Municipal Commissioner said that there should be separate rules for salary earners cooperative banks which are working for the welfare of society.
“Our bank is working for the employees of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, especially those who are in Grade IV, and not doing any other business activities. We are here to help them by catering to their financial needs. So, our working style is very different in comparison to other banks”, said Shankarwar.
While talking to this correspondent in Mumbai, he added that there should be a level playing field with commercial banks. The housing loan limit for salary earners cooperative banks is Rs 60 lakh which needs to be extended to 1.20 crore because in Mumbai the rate of single flats is more than Rs 1 crore”, he demanded.
Besides, we are also having future plans to take the bank to newer heights. We are aiming to achieve Rs 10,000 crore business mix in the span of three years and we are sure it will be achievable. At present our total business is around Rs 7,000 crore. Recently we have migrated our CBS system to FINACUS, informed Shankarwar.
Sharing further information about the bank’s activities, General Manager Vinod Ravadka said, “We are the direct members of NPCI. At present, the bank has 10 ATMs and plans to launch three more off site ATMs. Their bank has 21 branches in Mumbai as our area of operation is within the BMC”.
“The total BMC employees are around 1.10 lakh out of which 74,000 are our members, in which 50,000 are having their salary accounts with us. Due to our good image in Mumbai, many others who are not BMC employees, are also parking their money with our bank as deposits. We are leaving no stone unturned in fulfilling their financial needs”, Ravadka informed who has been the General Manager for the last five years.
In the last financial year, Municipal Cooperative Bank earned a net profit to the tune of Rs 92.47 crore as on 31st March 2023. Earlier, i.e. 2021-22, it was Rs 80.94 crore.
Its a great achivement as compared to other UCB’s. So RBI &-State Cooperative Deaprtment should jointly consider &-concentrate on Salary Earner UCB’s issue & try to amend it in near future