Features of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank

The features of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank follow from its place at the apex of the structure and from its twin nature as a co-operative society that is also a bank. The main features are set out below.

• Apex position — It is the topmost institution of the co-operative credit structure in the state, standing above all the district central co-operative banks.
• A co-operative body — It is registered under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, and on registration becomes a body corporate with a separate legal existence, a common seal and perpetual succession.
• Banking under an RBI licence — Although a co-operative, it carries on banking business under a licence from the Reserve Bank of India, and must obey the banking law like any other bank.
• Membership of institutions, not the public — Its members are chiefly the district central co-operative banks and other large co-operative institutions of the state, not individual farmers or the general public.
• Works through the district banks — It ordinarily does not deal directly with the individual farmer or the village society; it channels its funds through the district central co-operative banks (this is the principle of working at 'one remove').
• A federal, democratic body — It is a federation of the district central banks; each member institution takes part in its democratic management through elected representatives, so control rests with the co-operative institutions of the state.
• Link with the RBI and NABARD — It is the link between the Reserve Bank of India and NABARD above and the district central co-operative banks below; it borrows from them and passes the funds down the structure.
• Balancing centre for the whole state — Just as a DCCB balances funds within its district, the apex bank balances funds among the districts, moving resources from surplus districts to deficit ones.
• Leadership and guidance — Beyond finance, it leads, guides, trains and supervises the co-operative banking movement of the state and represents it before the government and the national institutions. …