have to look for the opportunities to use these regional forums as a way of refining, concentrating and amplifying our voice, so that the distilled wisdom of this interaction is heard more effectively in the multilateral forums. to provide a specific example : there can hardly be any doubt that the imf indonesian program would have been quite different if it had had an effective input from the region - the longterm desirability ( but low priority ) of doing something about the clove monopoly would have been kept in better perspective against the pressingly urgent short - term crisis of massive capital outflow. in macro policy, the overly tight budgets of the imf ’ s initial prescription might have been avoided. a strong regional representation could catalyse a better articulation of other aspects of our interests at the multilateral level. there is a danger that, at the multilateral level, the united states will promote the cause of those areas of principal interest to it ( principally latin america ) and europe will promote the interests of its eastern european neighbours ( including russia ), but that the interests of the countries of asia may be without a big country champion and advocate at the multilateral debate. we see this danger in the contingent credit line program being devised at the imf, where countries which receive a prior “ seal of approval ” will be able to draw on fund support more or less automatically in time of need. there is a real danger that countries which get this seal of approval are likely to be the countries of principal interest to the largest members of the imf who dominate the board. we may be able to redress this balance if our regional voice is well coordinated. a further factor in favour of regional arrangements is that, when it comes to collecting funds, a regional group can mobilise the strong forces of self - interest and immediate concern that are felt within a small, geographically contiguous group. the thai support package - where the regional contribution was almost three times the size of the imf ’ s contribution - illustrates that regional arrangements can be effective when multilateral agencies are slow across the ground or hindered by imperfect assessments of the situation. the form of the arrangements what form should these regional arrangements take? the point that should be made here is that a fair amount of overlap is inevitable, and no bad thing. certainly, representational resources are a constraint, but within this broad constraint, we should not be too fretted that a particular subject is discussed in more than one place

to mention here that once cooperative banks reach a certain threshold level, they are also expected to follow a regimen like large banks and standardized global practices, which may not be possible within the existing legal structure of cooperative banks. thus, before we move forward, the existing legal and regulatory framework need to be revisited to enable smooth transition. specifically, we need to debate the needed legal framework that will facilitate conversion of cooperatives into joint stock companies, conversion of deposit holders into shareholders etc. 15. the other alternative could be to allow the ucbs to grow and sustain themselves in the existing set - up. in that event, the obvious question that comes to mind is what are the existing restrictions that can be liberalised and what further measures can be envisaged for around 25 % average annual growth in deposits and advances for the scheduled commercial banks. broadly defined at crar of 10 %, net profit for last three years, gross npa < 7 % and net npa≤3 %. 88. 2 per cent of the total ucbs have reported a crar of 9 per cent or more as on march 31, 2013. the gross and net npa ratios as on march 31, 2013 stood at 6. 0 per cent and 1. 4 per cent respectively. bis central bankers ’ speeches the smooth non – disruptive growth of the sector? i hope the delegates will deliberate on these issues and suggest possible measures. the next phase – next generation cooperative banks 16. since the theme of the seminar is “ next - gen co - operative banks ” let me now briefly dwell on the subject. to begin with let us analyse some of the best global practices in cooperative banking and their implications for next - gen cooperative banks in india, before moving forward to what is our expectation from these banks. european co - operative business model 17. as you may be aware, the co - operative banking sector contributes significantly to the growth, stability and competitiveness of the european banking industry at a local and regional level. ordinary citizens can become members / owners of co - operative banks with relatively small investments. as a result, they have a direct say in the business and are involved in the governance, strategy and risk management processes. the core business of co - operative banks is value creation for their members and a long term relationship of trust, opposed to the profit maximization approach of mainstream banks. 18. it is worth mentioning that their performance is a result of their central focus on retail banking, solid capitalisation and