Workshops on central bank rules for bankers

AHMEDABAD: The number of co-op banks in Gujarat being penalized for flouting norms has left bank trustees and directors on shaky ground. Gujarat Urban Co-operative Banks Federation (GUCBF) has now started conducting workshops and seminars in various parts of the state to educate bank officials about RBI guidelines and various banking norms.  Veterans in the industry believe that ignorance among bank officials is costing the cooperative bank sector in the state dear. RBI issued notices to 36 banks in the state and penalized them for lapses in implementing customer identification norms and various other violations.  GUCBF has already conducted five seminars in place like Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Godhra for co-operative bank officials. "We have submitted a memorandum to RBI stating the erring banks have found themselves on the wrong side of regulations due to ignorance of various guidelines. To iron out the problem we have are conducting workshops and seminars, where RBI officials educate bank employees about different banking norms," saids GUCBF chairman Jyotindra Mehta.  In the coming days, GUCBF will organize such workshops in several rural towns and villages to save co-operative banks from penal action. Officials also said that small banks cannot afford to spend a lot on IT infrastructure and this could be one of the reasons that they fail to adhere to various RBI guidelines. "More than 50 per cent of the Gujarat's 280 co-operative banks are in small rural centres where transactions above Rs 10 lakh don't happen. So many of these banks officials feel that they don't fall under the AML guideline and with this ignorance don't send their weekly transaction information and get a notice," said Mehta.

TOI