Hyderabad March 12: The Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Urban and Town Banks association (Apcub), the trade body of cooperative urban banks in the state, has appealed to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to establish an apex bank to support and lend to weak banks to facilitate their revival.The associations president M Anjanayulu said in Hyderabad, "The proposed apex bank will also be used as a deposit bank for SLR funds in the place of district cooperative banks (DCCBs) or state cooperative banks." According to Mr Anjanayulu, though statutorily, urban cooperative banks are forced to keep SLR funds with DCCBs, a majority of them in the state are running in the red and no statutory authority provides any guarantee to these funds.
Urban cooperative banks keep SLRs and Reserve Fund deposits with DCCBs and state cooperative bank to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore. "We do not have even representative on their (DCCB) boards," Mr Anjanayulu said. "We want the freedom to deposit our funds with other strong banks at a high rate of interest," the association demanded. It further sought an amendment to the Act facilitating the presence of urban banks' representatives on the boards of DCCBs.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
