Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), often referred to as the bankers’ bank, announced on Monday that it has imposed monetary penalties on two cooperative banks in Gujarat for non-compliance with regulatory guidelines.

In the first case, by an order dated December 4, 2024, the RBI imposed a monetary penalty of ₹3.50 lakh (Rupees Three Lakh Fifty Thousand only) on Apani Sahkari Bank Ltd., Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The bank failed to transfer eligible unclaimed amounts to the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund within the prescribed time, sanctioned a loan to the relative of the bank’s director, breached the prudential inter-bank (gross) and counterparty exposure limits, failed to upload KYC records of certain customers onto the Central KYC Records Registry within the prescribed timeline, and did not carry out risk categorization of certain customers.

In the second case, by an order dated December 4, 2024, the RBI imposed a monetary penalty of ₹1.00 lakh (Rupees One Lakh only) on The Halol Mercantile Co-operative Bank Ltd., Dist. Panchmahal. The bank had donated a certain amount to a trust in which the bank’s director was interested and sanctioned a loan where a relative of the bank’s director stood as a guarantor.

These actions followed statutory inspections conducted by the RBI, which assessed the financial positions of these banks as of March 31, 2023. DeshGujarat