State co-op bank gets second schedule status from RBI

ibune News Service

Shimla, December 19

The Himachal Pradesh State Cooperative Bank (HPSCB) has earned the rare distinction of second schedule status from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a status equivalent to renowned commercial and nationalised banks.

Chairman of the bank Harsh Mahajan said the HPSCB had become the first cooperative bank in the northern region and third in the country to have been conferred the status by the RBI.

“Now we are as good as any other commercial bank and can open NRI accounts and also entitled to collect Income Tax,” he said, attributing the achievement to the initiatives taken by the bank staff.

The bank had already been awarded first prize for excellence in implementation of Information Technology applications and its annual turnover crossed Rs 10,000 crore during the last financial year (2013-14).

The bank can now directly get credit from reserve bank, open more branches, open ATMs and mobilise more deposits, Mahajan added.

Stressing that the bank was being patronised by farmers, employees and traders alike, he said out of total deposits of Rs 68,800 crore, the government deposits were just Rs 1,500 crore.

Referring to the non-performing assets (NPA) of the bank, Mahajan said the gross NPA was reduced from 9.1 per cent to 8.6 per cent and a target had been set to further reduce it to seven per cent by the end of this financial year.

Similarly, the net NPA of the bank has also come down to four per cent and would be further brought down to three per cent and the bank earned net profit of Rs 140 crore during 2013-14. Managing Director of the bank Amitabh Awasthi said the bank planned to open 13 new branches and install 50 ATMs by the end of the year.