The Narasimham Working Group (1975) conceptualized the creation of RRBs in 1975 as a new set of regionally oriented rural banks, which would combine the local feel and familiarity of rural problems characteristic of cooperatives with the professionalism and large resource base of commercial banks.
Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) were established under the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976 to create an alternative channel to the cooperative credit structure and to ensure sufficient institutional credit for the rural and agriculture sector.