Formalities for Opening of branches/extension counters by State Co-operative Banks

RBI/2014–15/586 DCBR.CO.RCB.No.BC.34/19.51.008/2014–15

May 07, 2015

Please refer to our cir­cu­lar RPCD.CO.RF.BC.No.14/07.06.00/2009–10 dat­ed August 4, 2009 on “Open­ing of new place of busi­ness by State Coop­er­a­tive Banks”. The pol­i­cy for open­ing of branches/extension counters/specialized branch­es with­in the area of oper­a­tion of the State Co-oper­a­tive Banks (StCBs) has since been reviewed. It has been decid­ed to revise the cri­te­ria and the pro­ce­dure for sub­mis­sion of appli­ca­tions by StCBs for open­ing of branches/extension coun­ters. The revised cri­te­ria are as follows: 

1. CRAR not being less than 9 per cent

2. No default in main­te­nance of CRR/SLR dur­ing the pre­ced­ing finan­cial year

3. Net NPA being less than 5 per cent

4. The bank should have a track record of reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance and no mon­e­tary penal­ty should have been imposed on the bank for vio­la­tion of RBI directives/guidelines dur­ing last two finan­cial years.

The above para­me­ters should be as assessed by NABARD in their lat­est inspec­tion report.

2. In order to expe­dite reg­u­la­to­ry approvals under Sec­tion 23 of the Bank­ing Reg­u­la­tion Act, 1949 (AACS), it has been decid­ed that StCBs sat­is­fy­ing the above cri­te­ria may sub­mit their appli­ca­tions in the pre­scribed for­mat to the con­cerned Region­al Office of Reserve Bank through NABARD for pri­or approval for open­ing of branches/ spe­cial­ized branches/extension counters/shifting of branches/upgradation of exten­sion coun­ters into full-fledged branches.

3. The oth­er instruc­tions issued ear­li­er by the Reserve Bank in this regard will remain unchanged.