Municipal Cooperative Bank Shifts Focus To Alternate Channels

While the bank has operational constraints, it is effectively utilizing its available resources:

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Mumbai-based the Municipal Cooperative Bank functions with the sole objective of catering to financial needs of the staff of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), especially the class IV employees. It is a salary earner’s non-scheduled, primary urban cooperative bank, the municipal employees being its members. Advances are restricted to full time employees of MCGM, but the general public an avail of other banking facilities. Its area of operation is the city of Mumbai and it does not cater to the needs of farmers.

According to Milin Sawant, chairman of the bank, the bank has a customer base 166,962 as on 31 March 2019, of which members are 84,976. It added 3839 members in the past financial year. However, retirements and deaths of members the number got is reduced by 4366. The rest are non-members, who are either general public or retired employees of the municipal corporation, who entrust their terminal/retirement funds with the bank. Sawant adds these members can open their pension savings accounts with the bank.

GROWTH: DEPOSITS 8%, LOANS 3%

The bank’s members generally need consumption loans, which are termed as ‘medium term loans’, in order to meet their family needs like children’s school fees, repairs and renovation of residential premises, marriages in the family, hospitalization expenses for critical ailment/major diseases, higher education of children/wards, purchase of certain items to increase standard of living, etc. Says Sawant: “Our total of deposits in 201819 stood at 34.81 billion and deposits collected in 2018-19 are of the order of 2.55 billion, out of which 1.39 billion is towards CASA, which comes to 29.77%. On yoy basis, the growth in deposits is 7.91%. The total amount of advances is 24.09 billion, signifying a 2.91% yoy increase.”