Four Co-operative Banks Added to RBI Act's Second Schedule

The Reserve Bank of India has included four cooperative banks in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, granting them 'scheduled bank' status. The notification, numbered CO.DOR.RAUG.No.S809/08-09-015/2026-2027 and dated 8 May 2026, was published in the Gazette of India (Part III – Section 4) on 20 May 2026 and announced by the central bank on 29 May 2026.

The four banks included are Contai Co-operative Bank Ltd. (West Bengal), Prime Co-operative Bank Ltd. (Surat, Gujarat), Shri Veershaiv Co-operative Bank Ltd. (Kolhapur, Maharashtra) and The Varachha Co-operative Bank Ltd. (Surat, Gujarat). Inclusion in the Second Schedule is granted to banks that meet the conditions of Section 42(6) of the RBI Act, including minimum capital, satisfactory governance and prudent operations.

A scheduled bank gains several privileges: it is eligible to borrow from the RBI at the bank rate, to participate in the clearing house, to obtain currency chest facilities, and is automatically included in money-market operations. The flip side is that it must maintain the cash reserve ratio (CRR) with the RBI and is subject to the RBI's full supervisory regime applicable to scheduled banks.

Scheduled cooperative banks form a small but important sliver of India's banking system, providing credit to small businesses, traders and farmers in the regions where they operate. The four additions reflect the RBI's continuing effort to bring qualified urban cooperative banks into the formal scheduled banking framework while simultaneously tightening governance and capital norms for the cooperative sector overall.