London, Oct. 25: We have all heard of good cops and bad cops but today the Home Office in London listed good banks and bad banks.

The UK Border Agency of the Home Office says that from November 24, it will not accept Indian student visa applications backed by financial statements from bad banks. It will accept them under the “Tier 4 points-based system” from good banks.

Many co-operative banks — and it is a very long list of 1,900 — are now put into the category of untrustworthy, even though in reality most of these institutions may be perfectly respectable and financially a lot sounder than the big British banks that have had to be rescued with billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

The list of banks considered kosher is comparatively short: it has just 85 names.

The Home Office clearly believes that some Indian banks are dodgy and will show that a student applying for a visa has enough money to pursue a course in the UK when in reality the funds are not available.

But the department is also under political pressure to be seen as cutting down on migration. It could not possibly have checked 1,900 co-operative banks and so appears to have decided the whole lot has to be put in the category of bad.

The banks considered bad include the Ahmedabad Mercantile Co-Op, Bombay Mercantile Co-operative, Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative and the Zoroastrian Co-operative. In contrast, among the good are Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank.

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Employees Co-op and Gandhi Co-op Urban won’t be pleased to hear they are considered bad.

The good include Dena Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Punjab National Bank.

A statement from the Home Office explained: “In June 2011, we announced that we would be publishing a list of financial institutions which we consider, on the basis of experience, do not verify financial statements to our satisfaction. Today we are publishing an initial list of financial institutions that fall under this category.”

It said: “We will use the list when verifying maintenance funds under Tier 4 of the points-based system. An applicant will receive no points for maintenance if they submit documents showing that the funds are held in a financial institution on the list.”

The Home Office said it was introducing reforms to the student immigration route. “The change is to ensure that we can verify that student visa applicants hold the required maintenance funds to support themselves and pay for their course in the UK. We will give a 30-day notice period from the date when a financial institution is first listed before the new rule takes effect,” it said.

“This will enable applicants to make the necessary financial arrangements, so that they can provide financial documentation which meets the new requirements. The list will be kept under review, and we will make additions or deletions as appropriate.”

There was an added warning: “We will continue to verify financial information from financial institutions not on the list on a case-by-case basis. We may refuse applications on the basis of these individual checks.”

The Home Office explained: “We will include an institution on the list if we consider, on the basis of experience, that it does not verify financial statements to our satisfaction in more than 50 per cent of a sample of cases.”

The problem for the Home Office is that it cannot be unreasonable in denying visas to foreign students at a time applications to universities is falling because of the steep rise in tuition fees to £9,000 a year in many cases.