Coop bank General Manager in vigilance net

CUTTACK: State Vigilance on Thursday arrested the General Manager of Urban Cooperative Bank, Cuttack, on charges of conniving with an unscrupulous trading agency and providing it a hefty loan without following proper procedures.

The Vigilance sleuths raided the office of General Manager Nilakantha Das, who has been produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody till September 7.

According to Vigilance officials, Das was allegedly involved in extension of loan to the tune of Rs. 2.21 crore to one Shiva Chrome Chemicals Private Limited, Chandikhol, between 2000 and 2004 in conspiracy with owners of the firm as well as fellow officials of the bank.

In his capacity as the then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank, he had disbursed Rs. 1.21 crore in 2000. Another Rs. 1 crore was subsequently extended in 2004. The loan was given without following proper procedures and adequate security. The papers of land mortgage and other documents were found to be forged. With the firm defaulting on repayment, the loan outstanding amount now stands at over Rs. 3.14 crore, Vigilance sources added.

Acting on complaints, a case was filed in June this year and investigations were on. Along with Das, another CEO Rangadhar Dhuria, the then branch managers of Jagatpur branch Rabindranath Sahoo and Kalpana Pailt, managing director of the firm Rabindra Khuntia along with directors Sunil Khuntia and Archana Khuntia have been named in the case, SP Vigilance Cell, Cuttack, SB Mishra said.

Source /Courtesy : www.ibnlive.com

Bonus Guidelines released for Kerala

Click the following link to Download the Circular conatining Bonus payment guidelines:

http://cooperation.kerala.gov.in/images/employees/10.pdf

Any bank can now join national financial switch: NPCI

MUMBAI: The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has said any bank with round-the-clock core banking solution capabilities, with/out ATMs, can now join the national financial switch (NFS) through a sponsor bank.
NPCI is an umbrella institution for all the Retail Payments Systems' in the country.
The move is aimed at facilitating even non-scheduled urban cooperative banks and regional rural banks to have access to the national network of over 78,000 ATMs in the country, NPCI managing director and chief executive A P Hota said in a release.
So far, access has been limited to only scheduled banks with RTGS membership, he added.
Meanwhile, the NPCI also said the total number of banks which have opted to join the inter-bank mobile payments service (IMPS) network have crossed 27 with two more private sector lenders joining the network over the past fortnight.

Source / Courtesy : The Economic Times

Urban Cooperative Bank should have its own Monitor

This is high time Urban Cooperative Banks should develop within themselves a monitor which would weed out the corrupt element before it strikes the bank numb and rob depositors of all confidence. Case in point is Bhandari cooperative bank.

Bhandari cooperative bank headquartered in Dadar in Mumbai and having operations in Mumbai and Thane is keeping Anti Corruption Cops busy these days. The Chairman and Managing Director along with a fictitious developer swindled neat Rs 35 crores from the Bank.

Though they have been arrested but depositor’s confidence has shaken so much that they have lined up before the banks to withdraw their money. Police have been deployed, seeing the huge rush of people and fearing clash between depositors and Bank officials.

The classic modus operandi was employed with the Chairman and executives sanctioning loan to a developer who had no plan at all to build colonies. About Rs 20 crore was sanctioned. Not satisfied with this amount, they forged documents further and took vehicle loan to the tune of Rs 15 cores.

Cooperative banks run on the trust and such incidents shake the confidence of people. Sad part is the information with the ACB, which says more cooperative banks are under its scanner for such fraudulent withdrawal of money.

This is high time Urban Cooperative Banks should develop within themselves a monitor which would weed out the corrupt element before it strikes the bank numb and rob depositors of all confidence. Case in point is Bhandari cooperative bank. Bhandari cooperative bank headquartered in Dadar in Mumbai and having operations in Mumbai and Thane is keeping Anti Corruption Cops busy these days. The Chairman and Managing Director along with a fictitious developer swindled neat Rs 35 crores from the Bank. Though they have been arrested but depositor’s confidence has shaken so much that they have lined up before the banks to withdraw their money. Police have been deployed, seeing the huge rush of people and fearing clash between depositors and Bank officials.  The classic modus operandi was employed with the Chairman and executives sanctioning loan to a developer who had no plan at all to build colonies. About Rs 20 crore was sanctioned. Not satisfied with this amount, they forged documents further and took vehicle loan to the tune of Rs 15 cores. Cooperative banks run on the trust and such incidents shake the confidence of people. Sad part is the information with the ACB, which says more cooperative banks are under its scanner for such fraudulent withdrawal of money.

Source / Courtesy : www.indiancooperative.com

UCBs make efforts to revive Madhavpura Mercantile Bank in Ahmedabad

Depositors and Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) have taken the initiative to sacrifice some portion of their deposits with the Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank (MMCB) in an attempt to revive the bank which is on its death throes.
On the other hand, no major decision was taken at the meeting convened by the Central government's department of agriculture and cooperative at New Delhi on Thursday. The fate of the MMCB is likely to be decided at another meeting of the board of nominees to take place next week.
Meanwhile, the depositors and UCBs have taken the initiative to sacrifice their dues up to 50% so that the bank's negative network can turn positive and it can fulfil Reserve Bank of India's criteria for revival.
The bank currently owes around Rs617 crore to 268 UCBs in the state. "We have decided to sacrifice 50% of our dues," said Jyotindra Mehta, chairman of Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks Federation.
Similarly, Gujarat Investors Protection Council has also written a letter to the board of nominees of the MMCB expressing their willingness to let go not more than 40% of their dues in line with the Urban Cooperative Banks' proposal.
"If the bank goes into liquidation, the investors are not likely to get anything. Moreover, the revival of MMCB will boost people's confidence in the cooperative sector," said Jitu Shah, president of Investors Protection Council.
The depositors have received 50% amount of their deposits in two instalments. However, they have not received any repayment or any interest for five years. The bank is yet to pay more than Rs100 crore plus interest to around 13,000 depositors.
If sources are to be believed, MMCB needs nearly Rs500 crore for revival. The central registrar had also asked the state government whether it was willing to lend the bank to come out of crisis.
However, the state government refused to bail out the bank.
Interestingly, neither the chairperson of the board of nominees of the MMCB Radha Singh nor the representatives of RBI were present in the meeting held at New Delhi on Thursday, said sources.
Now, the central registrar will decide the future course of action.

Source / Courtesy : www.dnaindia.com

Reserve Bank fines Rajkot Commercial Coop Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday penalised Rajkot-based Rajkot Commercial Co-operative Bank Limited for violation of RBI's instructions regarding grant of unsecured advances in excess of prescribed ceiling and director related advances. The RBI has slammed a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on the urban commercial cooperative bank.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the RBI said, a monetary penalty of Rs 2 lakh on Rajkot Commercial Co-operative Bank Limited, Rajkot, Gujarat, in exercise of powers vested in it under the provisions of Section 47(A)(1)(b) read with Section 46(4) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (AACS) for violation of Reserve Bank of India's instructions regarding grant of unsecured advances in excess of prescribed ceiling and director related advances.
The RBI had issued a show cause notice to the bank in response to which the bank had submitted a written reply. After considering the facts of the case and the bank's reply as also personal submissions in the matter, the RBI came to the conclusion that the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of the penalty, the statement said.
Further, on Tuesday, the RBI had fined another Gujarat based cooperative bank for violation of RBI norms. The apex bank imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 1 lakh on the Becharaji Nagarik Sahakari Bank Limited, Becharaji in Mehsana district of Gujarat.
The penalty was slammed for violation of RBI's instructions relating to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and Anti Money Laundering (AML) guidelines.

Courtesy / Source : the business standard

Saraswat Bank readies for conversion into commercial bank

At a time when scheduled urban banks are facing constraints in meeting strict norms for capital adequacy and limitations in raising funds, Saraswat Cooperative Bank has initiated steps to become a commercial bank.
“A slew of initiatives have already changed the bank’s status quoist culture to a modern-day banking solution provider. The bank has already embarked upon an ambitious target of achieving a business level of Rs 1 lakh crore by 2021. Against this backdrop, converting it into a commercial bank is being seriously looked into. However, the issue is at a preliminary level,” Chairman Eknath Thakur told Business Standard.

The city-headquartered lender, which has a total business of Rs 27,313 crore, is working out a

Election to choose Saraswat Bank’ Board on August 6

On August 6, the 1,68,000 members of Saraswat Bank will vote for 16 new Board members at 200 polling stations across the country and will be monitored by an independent Returning Officer Mr H P Gemini. Out of these 16 members, 10 are from Mumbai, 4 from the rest of the state and 2 from rest of India.
The chances of incumbent Chairman’s Mr Eknath Thakur’s reelection is said to be bright as it during his tenure the bank has beaten the all powerful Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB) to emerge as number one in terms of turn over.
Bank, which has grown its balance sheet size by nearly six times and has achieved a total business level of over Rs 28,000 crore in the past 10 years has become India’s largest Urban Co-operative Bank.
Saraswat Bank was established in 1918 and  has consistently earned ‘A’ class for 93 years and has been a profit-making and dividend-paying Bank since its existence.
The 226 odd branches of the Bank are spread over six states – Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now given a green signal to Saraswat Bank to extend its area of operation from the present six states to the entire country, making it a All-India Bank.
Watch these lines as we bring to you details of political maneuvering as the D day inches close. Elections are unpredictable and election in cooperatives are notorious for back room manipulations. Our representatives have  spread around to bring to you the  real picture.

Courtesy / source : www.indiancooperative.com