To set up Kerala Bank if voted to power: CPI-M

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 4 The CPI-M on Thursday said a cooperative-sector Kerala Bank will be established if the party is voted to power in the assembly polls later this year.

Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, who is on a state- wide yatra ahead of the polls, told IANS that the new bank will be constituted if the Left wins.

"The new bank would be in the cooperative sector. It is being worked out in a manner so that there is there no need for fresh capital. With this, we propose to revamp the existing three-tier cooperative banking structure," said Vijayan.

Kerala State Cooperative Bank was started under the Travancore Cooperative Societies Regulation Act by the then maharaja in 1914.

In 1943, it was transformed into Travancore Central Cooperative Bank. The bank was positioned to the level of State Cooperative Bank in 1956 where from it was christened as The Kerala State Cooperative Bank Ltd.

"With the new Kerala Bank, we want to ensure that the present state cooperative bank takes over all the district and primary cooperative banks."

Today there are 954 cooperative bank branches in the three-tier system which has a deposit base of close to Rs.50,000 crore.