Kerala Bank Set To Absorb State’s Co-operative Banks

Kerala's Left front government comes closer to achieve its pending dream of setting up the state government's own bank. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday approved the merger of district co-operative banks with Kerala State Co-operative Bank.

Thirteen district cooperative banks would be merged with Kerala State Co-operative Bank to form the "Kerala Bank", that is expected to have the largest banking network in the state, PTI reported.

Expressing his happiness over the approval, the state's chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in a Facebook post on Wednesday said, "... Happy to know that the Reserve Bank of India has given the final nod for the setting up of the Kerala Bank. ... we hope that the formation of the new bank will accelerate development of the state."

Final nod from the RBI would be subject to some conditions, he said, adding that the setting up of the new bank would also be in accordance with the final verdict of some cases pending before a court in this regard.

The government had claimed that the objective of the formation of the Kerala Bank was to strengthen the cooperative sector, while the Opposition had alleged that it would destroy the traditional cooperative sector.