Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah announced a 24/7 cyber surveillance centre and new initiatives to expand and modernise urban co-operative banks across India, signalling a disruptive push towards digital banking security and inclusion.
Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Saturday called for stronger cyber defences for urban co-operative banks and announced a round-the-clock Security Operations Centre to monitor threats across the sector. Addressing the Sahakar Nav-Kranti programme at the BSE International Convention Hall in Mumbai, Shah said rising digital payment fraud made security, forensic support and closer work with the National Forensic Science University essential to banking safety.
The minister also inaugurated the new office of the National Urban Co-operative Finance and Development Corporation in Mumbai’s Fort district and suggested that its headquarters should move from Delhi to Maharashtra. He argued that the western state, together with Gujarat, Goa and Karnataka, accounts for 70% of the country’s banks, making Mumbai a more fitting base for the umbrella body overseeing urban co-operative banks.
Shah linked the new office to a wider push to expand the reach of urban co-operative banks into every tehsil, or administrative subdivision, across India. He said the corporation would provide technical support, help banks comply with Reserve Bank of India rules, supply software and train employees, while also sharing information on reforms in the wider banking sector.
He also unveiled a “Bank in a Box” model designed to give smaller lenders access to core banking systems, digital payments and cloud compliance without the heavy capital costs usually associated with such upgrades. According to reports from Indian Co-operative and other sector publications, the Reserve Bank has already approved NUCFDC to operate as a non-banking finance company and self-regulatory body for the urban co-operative banking sector.
The event took place at the BSE, which Shah described as symbolically important to India’s financial history, and on August 8, a date he linked to Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India slogan. Sector voices, including NUCFDC chairman Jyotindra Mehta, have described the new office as a significant step for inclusive growth in the co-operative banking system, which has long sought a stronger institutional framework and broader digital capabilities.
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