Surat DCCB Aims Paperless Banking, CBS Driven PACS By 2020-21

Nareshbhai Patel, chairman, gives insights in the overall development of the Surat DCCB:

- Mehul

The Surat District Cooperative Bank, formed by the late Bamanji Edalji Modi and the late Rav Bahadur Khandubhai Desai, has completed 109 years in June 2018. When started, it had a membership of just 21 individuals and the total number of customers has touched 836,792 in March 2018.

Initially, Surat DCCB’s area of operation was the erstwhile Surat district, but after the creation of Valsad district, it is now restricted to Surat and Tapi districts. It operates 68 ATMs and 89 branches, of which 51 branches are in rural areas. For providing better service and improving the reach of the bank, 19 branches have been added in 2017-18. In all, there are 2322 cooperative societies, PACS and LAMPS affiliated to the bank.

Says Nareshbhai B. Patel, chairman: “It’s been a long journey from a humble beginning in 1909. We have recently obtained the RBI permission to open 32 branches. By 31 March 2019, we intend to have 100 branches. We also want to install 15 more ATMs by the end of the current financial year and 30 ATMs in the next financial year. We have added 29 branches in the last financial year. We aim to expand our footprint to 112 branches by 2020-21. The network will cover the entire geography - rural, semi-urban and urban areas of Surat and Tapi districts.”

CUSTOMER EDUCATION

The bank conducts awareness programs in rural areas to educate the people about banking with the intention of bringing more people into the financial fold. It holds Financial Literacy Awareness Programs (FLAPs) and digital FLAPs aas well as training sessions with the help of NABARD. Patel says 326 awareness programs have been conducted so far and10 financial literacy centers have been set up, which cover rural customers so that they can adopt digital banking and avail other banking services.