Thorat: Loan stand

Calcutta, Jan. 22: West Bengal State Co-operative Bank Limited has sought financial support from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to stem the high implementation cost of its real time gross settlement (RTGS) system. RTGS is an online interbank payment system in which processing and settlement take place continuously.

The Bengal bank became the second co-operative bank in the country to provide RTGS facility to its customers after the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank Ltd.

“This is a major step towards improving the co-operative credit delivery system in the state,” said Samir Ghosh, chairman of West Bengal State Co-operative Bank. “After the implementation of the RTGS system, the district central co-operative banks in as many as 17 districts and the urban co-operative banks, which have a good exposure in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, will be able to transfer funds instantaneously,” he explained.

The RTGS system enables quick deployment of funds at low cost with no settlement or paperwork delays and the values and interest amounts are computed on a real time basis rather than on the settlement day.

The Reserve Bank deputy governor Usha Thorat recently held discussions with Asim Dasgupta, the Bengal finance minister, on increasing the banking coverage in the state and the credit flow to SMEs.

Small and marginal farmers account for about 80 per cent of the loans given by credit co-operative banks, Ghosh said. These loans are partly refinanced by Nabard.

More than Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked to double the agricultural credit in the state in this fiscal. The co-operative banks in the state have taken a special initiative by forming one lakh self-help groups (SHGs), particularly for women, and about 60 per cent of these SHGs are being provided with credit by the banks.