History about

Co-operative Banks in India:

The term Urban Co-operative Banks (UCBs), though not formally defined, refers to primary cooperative banks located in urban and semi-urban areas. These banks, till 1996, were allowed to lend money only for non-agricultural purposes. This distinction does not hold today. These banks were traditionally centered around communities, localities work place groups. They essentially lent to small borrowers and businesses.

Today, their scope of operations has widened consider. The origins of the urban cooperative banking movement in India can be traced to the close of nineteenth century when, inspired by the success of the experiments related to the cooperative movement in Britain and the cooperative credit movement in Germany such societies were set up in India.

Cooperative societies are based on the principles of cooperation, mutual help, democratic decision making and open membership. Cooperatives represented a new and alternative approach to organization as against proprietary firms, partnership firms and joint stock companies which represent the dominant form of commercial organization.