Shivalik Mercantile receives approval to become Small Finance Bank

Within a fortnight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) coming up with its draft guidelines on urban cooperative bank (UCB) asking them to lent 75 per cent of their portfolio towards priority sector, Uttar Pradesh based multi-state Shivalik Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd received an in principle approval for becoming a small finance banks.

The RBI had come with a scheme on voluntary transition of UCBs into Small Finance Bank (SFB) on September 27, 2018. But there was no taker. 

However, after the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam, the central bank tightened the screw and recently proposed that UCBs should