Opposition Up In Arms After RBI Gives Nod For Setting Up ‘Kerala Bank’ By Amalgamating 13 Cooperative Banks In State

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its approval to a longstanding demand by the Kerala government for a “Kerala Bank”. The proposed bank will be formed by amalgamating all 13 District Co-operative Banks (DCBs) with the Kerala State Cooperative Bank and will be the largest banking network in the state.

The Chief Minister of the State, Pinarayi Vijayan, evinced delight over the decision by RBI through a Facebook post on Wednesday (9 October), which read:

“ We are glad to have the final permission of Reserve Bank for Kerala bank development... Hope it will be possible through the formation of Kerala to increase the development of the state. ”

In addition to this, he also said that the creation of bank will be done in accordance with the decision of court over several pending cases pertaining to this matter along with the conditions put forth by RBI.

The Opposition has claimed that the decision will ruin the co-operative sector in the state, while the government asserted that the entire process will rather strengthen the cooperative sector.

It must also be noted that the LDF government had put up the establishment of “Kerala Bank” as one of the major promises when they came to power in May 2016.