NUCFDC will offer core banking, digital payments, cloud, compliance and cybersecurity services at affordable costs.
The initiative aims to help smaller cooperative banks compete with large banks while expanding credit access for small businesses and self-employed Indians.
Highlights
- Around 1,400 Urban Cooperative Banks hold nearly ₹6 lakh crore in deposits across India.
- NUCFDC’s ‘Bank in a Box’ will bundle core banking, digital payments, cloud and compliance services.
- A new Security Operations Centre (SOC) will provide cyber monitoring and fraud-protection support.
- NUCFDC and NFSU will collaborate on cybersecurity and digital forensics for cooperative banks.
- About 650 of 1,400 UCBs have already joined the NUCFDC Umbrella Organisation.
- Amit Shah said cooperative banks can strengthen self-employment, MSMEs and small businesses by improving access to smaller loans.
Story
New Delhi, August 9: India’s Urban Cooperative Banks are set for a major technology and cybersecurity upgrade as the government pushes to bring nearly 1,400 such banks under a common digital and institutional framework.
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the new premises of the National Urban Cooperative Finance and Development Corporation (NUCFDC) in Mumbai and addressed the ‘Sahkar Nav-Kranti’ programme. During the event, he launched a Security Operations Centre for Urban Cooperative Banks along with core banking and allied services.
One of the biggest announcements was ‘Bank in a Box’, an integrated service designed to give cooperative banks access to core banking, digital payments, cloud infrastructure, regulatory compliance and other modern banking facilities at affordable rates.
The initiative could be particularly important for smaller and single-branch cooperative banks that may find it expensive to independently invest in advanced banking technology.
NUCFDC will procure and provide common technology and services for member banks, potentially lowering costs through scale. It will also support banks with employee training, regulatory compliance and technologies such as MuleHunter and other AI-based fraud-prevention systems.
Cybersecurity is another major focus. The newly launched Security Operations Centre will provide monitoring and security support to Urban Cooperative Banks. NUCFDC has also signed an MoU with the National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) to expand cybersecurity and digital forensic capabilities.
According to Shah, nearly ₹6 lakh crore is deposited across about 1,400 Urban Cooperative Banks in India. These banks have an important role in financing small shopkeepers, traders, cottage industries, MSMEs, local entrepreneurs, women’s Self-Help Groups and middle-class borrowers.
He said stronger cooperative banks could also support India’s self-employment ecosystem by improving access to small-ticket credit.
At present, around 650 Urban Cooperative Banks have joined the Umbrella Organisation. Shah called for all 1,400 banks to become members within the next year.
The broader objective is to make cooperative banks technologically stronger, safer and more competitive while ensuring that even smaller banks can provide customers with modern digital banking services
