On January 27, 2020, According to the India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there have been about 972 cases of fraud in the urban cooperative banks (UCBs) of the country in the last 5 fiscal years (FY), in which banks have incurred losses of  221 crores.
Key Points:
i.Cases reported in UCBs during past 5 FY:
- In the financial year 2018-19 itself, 181 cases of rigging have been reported, in which banks have lost Rs 127.7 crore.
- In the financial year 2016-17 and 2017-18, there were 27 and 99 cases of scams in UCBs. In which the banks lost Rs 9.3 crore and Rs 46.9 crore respectively.
- In the financial year 2014-15 and 2015-16, this figure of bank fraud stood at 478 and 187 cases respectively. In which urban co-operative banks lost Rs 19.8 crore and Rs 17.3 crore.
ii.Thus, during the last 5 years, around 972 cases of fraud worth Rs 221 crore occurred in UCBs.
iii.As per RBI, banks need to register these cases of rigging with legal investigating agencies. Banks should decide the responsibility of staff in such cases and take strict action & punish the guilty.
iv.The RBI has not informed about the action taken in these cases of frauds.
v.As of March 31, 2019, there are a total of 1544 UCBs in the country. Of which a total of 4.84 lakh crore rupees are deposited. Of these, maximum Rs 3 lakh crore is deposited in 496 UCBs in Maharashtra alone. There are 55,102 crore deposits in 219 such banks in Gujarat. In Karnataka, 263 urban co-operative banks have deposits of Rs 41,096 crore.
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Formation– 1 April 1935
Governor– Shaktikanta Das
Deputy Governors– 4 (BP Kanungo, N S Vishwanathan, Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Debabrata Patra)
