Mumbai, August 8, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday announced that the headquarters of the National Urban Co-operative Finance and Development Corporation (NUCFDC), the umbrella organisation for urban co-operative banks, will be shifted from Delhi to Maharashtra.
Speaking at the ‘Sahakar Nav-Kranti Mela’ in Mumbai, Shah said the organisation would play a key role in making India’s urban co-operative banking sector modern, transparent, secure and technology-driven.
He said Maharashtra was a suitable location for the headquarters as the state has 449 co-operative banks and, along with Gujarat, Goa and Karnataka, accounts for a substantial concentration of urban co-operative banks.
Shah urged all urban co-operative banks, including single-branch institutions, to join the umbrella organisation. He said member banks would be connected to a Security Operations Centre (SOC), strengthening cybersecurity and depositor confidence.
The NUCFDC will also provide banks with updates on banking reforms, digital tools such as ‘Mule Hunter’ and employee training, Shah said. He expressed confidence that the umbrella organisation would help urban co-operative banks compete with commercial banks while strengthening their credibility with customers and the Reserve Bank of India.
India has nearly 1,400 urban co-operative banks with combined deposits of around Rs 6 lakh crore, according to Shah. These banks provide small-ticket loans to shopkeepers, traders, cottage industries, MSMEs, local entrepreneurs, self-help groups and middle-income families.
He said the collateral-free loan limit had recently been increased from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, with a repayment rate of 99.78 per cent, including interest.
Highlighting the government’s ‘Sahkar Se Samriddhi’ vision, Shah said the cooperative sector must focus on improving the lives of individual customers rather than merely strengthening institutional balance sheets.
Amid growing digital transactions and cyber fraud, Shah stressed the importance of cybersecurity and digital forensic capabilities. An MoU between NUCFDC and the National Forensic Sciences University will support cybersecurity, fraud prevention, digital forensics, banking security and workforce training.
During the event, Shah virtually launched the Security Operations Centre for urban co-operative banks. A practical guide on operational risk management for urban co-operative banks was also released, while representatives of six banks integrated with the ‘Sahakar CBS’ system were felicitated.
Core banking services under the national service bundle were also launched, alongside the formal exchange of the NUCFDC-NFSU MoU.
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