Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) started in India back in 18891 exactly a century and quarter ago here in Gujarat and India has one of the oldest community-banking movements in the world. However, the real growth and proliferation began after this sector was brought under the purview of Banking Regulation Act in 1966.
The evolution thereafter may be broadly divided into three phases, Growth phase, crisis phase and Consolidation phase. Growth phase (1966–2003) 5. In 1966, there were about 1100 UCBs with deposits and advances of ₹ billion and ₹ billion respectively. Since then there has been phenomenal growth in terms of their numbers, size and scale of operations.