RBI relaxing Coop bank lending norms to give a boost to Centre’s affordable housing plan

Union Cooperation minister Amit Shah said the RBI’s decision to relax norms for cooperative banks for home loans will provide a momentum to the government’s goal of providing affordable housing for people.

Referring to the RBI decision to allow Rural Cooperative Banks (RCBs) to lend to the commercial real estate and residential housing sector, the minister said: “With this decision, the scope of our rural cooperative banks will increase. Along with this, the resolution of giving affordable houses to people will also get momentum”.

Among other key decisions, the RBI has doubled the limit of individual housing loans for urban cooperative banks and more than doubled for rural cooperative banks. The individual housing loan limit for tier-I urban cooperative banks (UCBs) has been increased from 30 lakh to 60 lakh, for tier-2 UCBs from 70 lakh to 1.40 crore and RCBs limit has been increased from 20 lakh and 30 lakh to 50 lakh and 75 lakh, respectively, he said.

The minister said, the RBI has allowed urban cooperative banks to provide doorstep banking facilities to customers. “With this decision, cooperative banks will get a level playing field in the competitive banking sector and they will be able to provide door-to-door banking facilities to customers like other banks,” he added.