Published Paper Details:

Past few years were full of challenges for Urban Co-operative Banks in India, where Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC) scam was exposed in September 2019, due to which the UCBs are still struggling to survive. On the other hand the COVID-19 impacts on economy has resulted fall in demand, lowers incomes, production shutdowns and low interest rate scenario will adversely affect the collections, profitability and financial health of these banks. At the same time the failure of some good UCBs has also attracted the attention of the people and raised the question of security of their funds. In such difficult circumstances, it becomes even more necessary to evaluate the present financial soundness of these UCBs. Keeping this in mind, the present study is an attempt to know the financial soundness of the largest urban cooperative bank of North India i.e. Almora Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd., Almora. From the study it is found that out of 7 parameters of soundness, AUCB Ltd, Almora succeeds to maintain Net NPA (Non-performing Assets) ratio, NIM (Net Interest Margin), CRAR (Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio) and CASA (Current Account Saving Account) Ratio as per prescribed norms for FWSM (Financially Sound and Well Managed) UCBs. In terms of Gross NPA and ROA (Return on Assets) ratio, the performance of the bank in the year 2020-21 alone was not against the standards whereas in the matter of CD (Credit to Deposit) Ratio, the bank struggled against the norms throughout the study period.