’ speeches underlining focus also, it is observed that the co - operatives in asia were basically formed to bring about socio - economic development, particularly with respect to agriculture and rural development. 24. in asia itself, there have been many success stories to emulate. an exemplary initiative which the co - operative development authority ( cda ) of the philippines has taken is the launch of the co - operative information system. the cda in association with the us agency for international development and another technology partner developed this web - based database of co - operatives, to be accessed in real - time at any of the cda ’ s extension counters. the information on each cooperative ’ s annual organizational and financial status through the co - operative annual performance report is also integrated with this database, thereby providing a platform for the co - operatives to exchange information readily. further and more importantly, the main aim of the system is to help the government in creating performance standards, policies, regulations and development programmes for the overall benefit of the sector. perhaps, the creation of such technology information system will also help our cooperative sector by providing a platform to them to exchange information readily for performance oriented and integrated development. cooperativeness among cooperative banks 25. cooperatives also need cooperation among themselves to support and promote their growth and expansion. as you might be aware, the v. s. das working group constituted by rbi to study these umbrella organization of cooperative banks internationally found that there are two broad approaches in this regard. 26. in european countries, the umbrella organization is generally in the form of a strong apex level entity. all the local cooperative banks are generally members of the apex entity. each member exercises its voting rights under the “ one member one vote ” principle. the apex entity supports and advises the individual member banks in areas such as customer services, alm, it, mutual funds, product development, etc. 27. in the case of australia, usa and, canada, the umbrella organization is not part of any group, but is a distinct entity where the credit unions are its members. in us there is an “ umbrella ” of umbrella organizations. the umbrella organization in us provides extensive investment, liquidity, and cash - management products and services ; risk - management and analytic capabilities ; settlement, funds transfer and payment services ; and safekeeping and custody services. however, in australia the emphasis has been on payment clearing services and emergency liquidity support. 28. these organizations are serving the sector well and have not only resulted in greater

in the member countries benefited from lower transaction costs. the acu has established a creditable settlement record in that there has been no default at all since the union started functioning. a significant contributory factor for the success of the acu was the switching over of the union ’ s accounting unit from amu ( asian monetary unit ) to the acu dollar. under the current system, in vogue since 1996, traders are being allowed not only to invoice their documents in us dollars but also to make and receive payments in dollars. commercial banks in member countries are allowed to open nostro accounts in acu dollars to facilitate all receipts and payments. further the central banks are arranging to fund as well as absorb excess liquidity from these accounts. the switchover has facilitated the application of real time rates and up - gradation of the entire acu mechanism to be in tune with the rapid changes in the international forex markets due to the revolutionary changes in satellite communications and wide ranging financial sector liberalization in the developing economies. as a result, the transactions are now being settled expeditiously and in true reflection of the market value of the currencies of member countries. further, the switchover to acu dollar for accounting of all the transactions of the union has facilitated market participants in member countries to get forward cover for their transactions and also made them eligible to get pre - shipment and post - shipment credit denominated in foreign currencies. it is heartening to note that india has been playing a key role in the success of the acu mechanism, topping the turnover table year after year. its share in the volume of transactions has been around 40 % followed by the islamic republic of iran and bangladesh at 23 per cent and 17 per cent respectively on an average, during the last three years. in the last board meeting my distinguished colleague from sri lanka, governor jayawardena rightly described acu as the oldest institution for regional co - operation in asia. having been set up at a time of severe shortage of foreign exchange and having served the member countries well, the union has reached a stage where there is a need to evaluate the future role of the acu to adjust to new realities. in this context, governor jayawardena had suggested that the terms of reference of the acu needs to be revisited, and i am glad that a technical team with the help of escap has gone into this aspect. future role of acu for the evolution of acu in