Advances grow faster than deposits at UCBs in Gujarat

Urban cooperative banks in Gujarat lent money to 563,000 people.

Advances by the urban cooperative banks (UCBs) in Gujarat have outperformed deposits during the financial year ended March 31, 2011. The advances grew by over 11 per cent over previous year, while deposits rose by close to 4.5 per cent on year-on-year basis.

As per the figures provided by the Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks Federation (GUCBF), the advances given by the state UCBs stood at Rs 12,056 crore, up 11.7 per cent from Rs 10,645 crore registered in March 2010, while deposits rose by about 4.5 per cent from Rs 20,443 crore in March 2010 to Rs 21,404 crore in March, 2011.

At a recently held annual general meeting of GUCBF, Jyotindra Mehta, the chairman of the federation informed that UCBs in Gujarat advanced money to about 563,000 people during the financial year 2010-11.

Speaking about the future growth of urban cooperative banking system in India, Mehta said, "We are proud that Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under its Malegam panel, has opened the doors for new cooperative banks in India." The federation has decided to celebrate the year, 2011-12 as the International Cooperation Year, in line with the United Nation's decision to celebrate the year to recognise the importance of the small cooperative banks and credit unions.

"Some time back when the global economy was struggling through a slowdown and many large banks and financial institutions collapsed. At that time credit unions and cooperative banks in Europe and the US stood firm against all odds. It is a pride for us that UN has decided to celebrate the year of 2011-12 as the year of International Cooperation Year," added Mehta at the 36th AGM held in Ahmedabad recently.

Currently, the state has 249 UCBs operational, while experts anticipate about 40-50 new UCBs to get operational after the newly issued norms recommended by the Malegam Committee in due course of time.

The committee, which was appointed by the RBI on licensing of new UCBs under the chairmanship of Y H Malegam recommended that, 'the existing well managed cooperative credit societies, which would meet financial criteria like profits, capital adequacy and NPAs' proportion should be given priority for granting licenses as UCBs mainly in the unbanked or inadequately banked districts of the country."