RBI Guideline on Use of abbreviations/abridged names/logo by Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks (UCBs)

Names as Appear­ing in the Cer­tifi­cate of Reg­is­tra­tion and the Licence -

Use of — Pri­ma­ry (Urban) Co-oper­a­tive Banks (UCBs)

Please refer to our cir­cu­lar UBD.No.BR/11/16.51.00/98–99 dat­ed Decem­ber 11, 1998 and sub­se­quent cir­cu­lars UBD.CO.BR.No.538/16.51.00/2000–01 dat­ed May 21, 2001 and UBD(PCB).Cir.34 /16.51.00 /2004–05 dat­ed Jan­u­ary 10, 2005on the above sub­ject advis­ing UCBs to dis­play only their full name in the form in which it appears in the Cer­tifi­cate of Reg­is­tra­tion issued by the Reg­is­trar of Co-oper­a­tive Soci­eties (RCS) and the licence grant­ed by Reserve Bank of India. The above instruc­tions were issued under Sec­tion 35 A of the Bank­ing Reg­u­la­tion Act,1949(AACS). 

2. Pur­suant to the delib­er­a­tions in the Stand­ing Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee meet­ing held in Feb­ru­ary 2006, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decid­ed to allow UCBs to use abbreviations/abridged names/logo etc., as part of their brand build­ing effort so long as the full name as appear­ing in the bank­ing licence is also shown along with such abbreviated/abridged names in all pub­lic­i­ty material/stationery. How­ev­er, it ha come to the notice of RBI that some UCBs are not fol­low­ing this prin­ci­ple strict­ly by either not ensur­ing that their full name appears along­side their abridged/abbreviated name or using too small fonts for their full name which ren­ders it unread­able. With a view to ensur­ing that the efforts towards brand build­ing do not com­pro­mise with the larg­er issue of prop­er dis­clo­sure to the pub­lic, UCBs are advised to ensure that wher­ev­er abbreviated/abridged ver­sion of their name is used for Logo/brand build­ing, the full name of the bank as appear­ing in the Cer­tifi­cate of Reg­is­tra­tion and the licence grant­ed by RBI should also be dis­played promi­nent­ly. Besides, the font size used for the full name shall not be small­er than the one used for their abbre­vi­at­ed name/abridged name/Logo.
3. These instruc­tions are issued under Sec­tion 35A of the Bank­ing Reg­u­la­tion Act, 1949 (AACS) and any con­tra­ven­tion of or non-com­pli­ance to the same will attract penal­ties under the rel­e­vant pro­vi­sions of the Act.

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