The scheme will come into force with effect from August 4
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sanctioned the scheme of amalgamation of fraud-hit New India Co-operative Bank (NICB) with Saraswat Co-operative Bank (SCB).
The scheme will come into force with effect from August 4, with all the branches of NICB functioning as SCB’s branches with effect from this date.
Saraswat Co-operative Bank, in a statement said, it will be taking over all the assets and liabilities of NICB, post merger.
“Customers, including depositors of NICB, will be treated as customers of Saraswat Bank with effect from 4th August, 2025 and their interests will be fully protected,” per the statement.
As at March-end 2025, SCB, which is India’s largest urban co-operative bank, and NICB had total business (deposits plus advances) of ₹91,800 crore and ₹3,500 crore, respectively.
India’s largest UCB, last month, had approached RBI for approval to acquire NICB, whose networth had turned negative, under the central bank’s voluntary amalgamation scheme for UCBs.
With the latest acquisition, Mumbai-based SCB has made its eighth acquisition of a stressed urban co-operative bank (UCB) over two decades.
The bank’s pearl of strings acquisition strategy began with the acquisition of Maratha Mandir Co-operative Bank (March 2006).
In 2007, it acquired four UCBs — Mandvi Co-operative Bank, Annasaheb Karale Janata Sahakari Bank, Murgha Rajendra Sahakari Bank, and Nashik People’s Co-operative Bank.
Further, it acquired two more UCBs – South Indian Co-operative Bank (2008) and Kolhapur Maratha Co-operative Bank (2009).
NICB got into a tight spot in February 2025 after misappropriation of funds aggregating ₹122 crore was detected during RBI inspection.
Published on August 1, 2025
