Features of a District Central Co-operative Bank

The features of a DCCB flow from its twin nature — it is a co-operative and it is a bank — and above all from its middle position in the three-tier structure. The main features are set out below.

• A co-operative body at the district level — It is registered under the co-operative societies law (the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960) and works within the limits of a single district. On registration it becomes a body corporate with a separate legal existence, a common seal and perpetual succession.
• Its members are mainly co-operative societies — Unlike an urban bank whose members are individuals, the DCCB's principal members are the primary societies of the district; it is a co-operative of co-operatives. Individuals may also be admitted, but the societies are the heart of its membership.
• The central financing agency of the district — It is the one bank to which every primary society in the district turns for funds; it finances their lending and holds their surplus.
• The middle (linking) tier — It stands between the primary societies at the base and the State Co-operative Bank at the apex, passing money down and surplus up, and forming the essential link between the two.
• Banking is its business — It carries on banking under the banking law: it accepts deposits, lends, and offers agency and utility services, dealing both with its member societies and with the public.
• Democratic management — Like every co-operative it is managed by a board elected on co-operative principles by its members (mainly the societies), so that control rests with the movement itself and not with outside capital.
• Service before profit — Its primary aim is to serve the primary societies and the district's rural economy with adequate and timely credit at reasonable rates, not to earn the maximum profit; surplus is used for reserves, members' benefit and development.
• Dual regulation — Being at once a co-operative and a bank, it is controlled by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies (as a co-operative) and by the Reserve Bank of India / NABARD (as a bank) — the defining supervisory feature of co-operative banking. …