The much talked about umbrella organization for urban cooperative banks and credit societies finally took birth on Saturday, leading to the scenes of jubilation in the UCB camp.
The new entity known as Apex Coop Finance and Development Limited” has been registered under the Company Act, leading to a minor setback for some who wanted to register it under the Co-operative Act.
Hailing the development, the apex body of ucbs’ Nafcub wrote on social media “Long awaited dream of formation of an Umbrella Organisation for UCBs was fulfilled on April 18, 2020 when Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India granted Certificate of Incorporation (CoI) to the entity by the name “APEX COOP FINANCE AND DEVELOPMENT LIMITED”.
“We will soon file an application with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for issue of Certificate of Registration”, read the FB post of Nafcub.
Nafcub also exhorted members to be part of this entity sooner than later. “The whole Cooperative sector needs to come under this umbrella as soon as possible. A copy of Certificate of Incorporation obtained from MCA is shared for your information”, it wrote.
In the last AGM, held in the NCUI auditorium in Delhi in September last, Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta had welcomed the RBI’s go-ahead for forming Umbrella Organization and called it a game-changer. Earlier in June RBI had sent a letter to this effect with certain conditions.
V S Das made a presentation on the upcoming Umbrella Organization detailing the conditions stipulated by RBI such as membership to UO would be voluntary.
“UO would be registered as NBFC which would be converted into a bank after 4-5 years and after a positive experience”, he had clarified then.
Several delegates were, however, not happy with UO being registered as NBFC and wanted it to be registered under the co-op act. Das, Mehta and finally Patil had to intervene one by one convincing delegates of the compulsion of registering UO under the Company Act. “We tried our best but we had no chance and we would ensure that it is not monopolized by any one big group as we will have differential share”, Mehta made efforts to convince the delegates.