In his welcome address on the occasion of inauguration of umbrella organization for urban cooperative banks, called NUCFDC in short, its Chairman Jyotindra Mehta said, “After a struggle of ‘20 years’, the dream of establishing umbrella organization for UCBs has come true”.
“The Umbrella model has been successful in Europe and America and the same method was adopted in India for making the UO for more than 1500 urban cooperative banks. Yet Indian model is different and unique in the sense that we have a heterogenous mix of UCBs, some being just a unit bank with a lone branch, added Mehta.
Mehta further said, “The newly formed Umbrella Organization will help the smaller UCBs, which can’t afford advanced technology in their day-to-day business operation. Smaller UCBs can’t afford the advanced technologies being provided by big tech Companies including TCS, Infosys etc because of heavy cost but this dream of smaller UCBs will also be fulfilled with this UO”.
The Umbrella Organisation (UO) for Urban Cooperative Banks, is set to operate as a Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) under the purview of the RBI. The Umbrella Organisation will play a pivotal role in providing critical IT Infrastructure and Fund-based support to UCBs.
NUCFDC Chairman said, “After seeing the presentation on Umbrella Organization, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah assured us that NCDC will contribute Rs 200 crore as an initial capital toward UO and we also got the sanction letter from NCDC in this regard. We are ready to compete with the PSUs, Private Banks, Foreign Banks and others through umbrella organization.
There are 220 urban cooperative banks in India, which are more than 100 years old. 896 UCBs are in Tier 1, 520 are Tier-2, 78 are Tier-3 and only 6 banks are under Tier-4 category, which have deposits of more than 10k crore, revealed Mehta.
“We are having manpower, mind power and now there is a need to increase willpower for making this UO successful. We are having UCBs in Manipur as well as Mizoram but we have to grow them on the lines of Saraswat Bank, which is the largest UCBs in India and at the same time make Saraswat Bank a global bank”, Mehta asserted.
The Umbrella Organization will also contribute in fulfilling the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘Sahakar Se Samriddhi’. Mehta thanked Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah for his unwavering support for strengthening the urban cooperative banking sector.
On the occasion, Mehta also mentioned the role of N. S. Vishwanathan, Former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and V S Das, Ex ED, RBI in establishment of umbrella organization. The RBI is also positive towards the formation of UO and got the support of RBI governor Shaktikanta Das in this connection, concluded Mehta.
