Q.Explain the role (importance) of urban co-operative banks.

The special value of a UCB lies in serving the townspeople the big banks once ignored.

Urban co-operative banks fill a special place in the banking system by serving the small townsman. Their role and importance may be explained as follows:

1. Mobilising small savings — By offering safe, convenient deposits close to home, UCBs draw out the modest savings of the urban middle class and turn idle money into a useful pool for lending, while building the habit of thrift.
2. Providing cheap credit to small borrowers — Their loans go mainly to small traders, artisans, self-employed persons and small industries on simpler terms than big banks demand, freeing such borrowers from high-cost private finance.
3. Encouraging small business and self-employment — By financing shopkeepers, craftsmen and tiny enterprises, they support local trade and industry and help create employment in the town.
4. Promoting financial inclusion — They carry banking to persons and localities that commercial banks may find unprofitable, bringing ordinary townspeople into the banking fold.
5. Personal, local and prompt service — Being small and rooted locally, a UCB knows its customers, understands local needs and can decide and disburse loans quickly with less red tape. …

Explain each point in a sentence rather than listing bare words, and cover both the economic role (savings and credit) and the social role (incl …