Amit Shah pushes cooperative banks to ensure 100% growth in deposits in 5 years

Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who also handles the portfolio of cooperation, has pushed cooperative banks for a 100 percent growth in deposits in the next five years.

"We are required to double our deposits in the next five years from Rs 5.5 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore. A professional assessment is to be made for future expansion," Shah told the bank chiefs at the National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks (NAFCUB) in New Delhi on October 12.

He called for an umbrella organisation to strengthen and modernise the urban cooperative banks while protecting the spirit of cooperation. "This will ensure the vision of One UCB (urban cooperative bank) in each Town. NAFCUB should take the initiative in the housing sector. The umbrella organisation will be the potential clearing house," he said.

The minister urged the coop bank outfit to prepare the moral guidelines for the urban cooperative banks based on the objective of one-town-one-UCB in the next five years. "You should take advantage of the opportunity, else we cannot change the perception that cooperative banking is a dying sector," he said.

NAFCUB President Jyotindra Mehta said the RBI's recent approval for the formation of a national umbrella organisation for UCBs is a landmark development and a great opportunity for India's 1,514 UCBs. The organisation felicitated the minister for the landmark decisions taken in favour of UCBs.