BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

JOINT STOCK BANKS

When the old Yeotmal Gazetteer was published, there was not a single joint-stock bank in the district. Money-lenders who were the only purveyors of credit dominated the field of finance and used to meet the credit requirements of the people. The rise of the modern joint-stock banks can be traced to the opening of the first branch of the Imperial Bank of India at Yeotmal in 1949. Two more branches of this Bank, one at Pusad and the other at Wani also came up in the district at about the same time. With the nationalisation of the Imperial Bank of India, all these branches became the branches of the State Bank of India. During the subsequent period other banks also started their branches in the district so that by 1964-65 there were 12 branches of different banks working in the district. Of these seven were the branches of the State Bank of India. The names of these banks, their places of location and the date of their establishment are given below:—

The statement shows that besides the State Bank of India only three other banks had established their branches in the district till 1964-65. Most of these were located at Yeotmal, the district headquarter and an important commercial centre.

All these banks including the State Bank of India carry on their usual banking activities in the district. They finance trade and agriculture, and provide certain credit facilities to the public. They receive deposits and advance loans against securities. Their facilities also include overdraft, safe-deposit vaults, etc. The rates of interest charged by them on advances differ according to the purpose for which the advances are made. Advances to industries are given priority over those to merchants dealing in seasonal crops like cotton, foodgrains, etc. Next preference is given to traders and the last to the personal account holders. Of late, these banks have also been liberally financing the small-scale industries in the district.

Of all the joint-stock banks now working in the district, the State Bank of India holds the most important position. It was constituted under a special Act on 1st July 1955, under which the Imperial Bank of India was nationalised. The creation of the State Bank of India considerably facilitated extension of credit to people in rural and urban areas. It also acts as an agent of the Reserve Bank of India and conducts government transactions. In addition, it provides remittance facilities to scheduled and co-operative banks and co-operative societies. The role of the State Bank in respect of rural credit consists of, (a) financing agriculturists by way of advances against pledge of gold ornaments, (b) making advances against warehouse receipts, (c) making advances to co-operative and marketing societies by way of repledge of their stocks with the Bank.

The main objective of all these banks is to encourage the habit of banking especially in rural areas and to cater to the financial needs of the population. By 1966, the total amount of deposits of all the commercial banks in the district came to Rs. 2,36,00,000 and their total credit to Rs. 63,00,000 [From Statistical Tables relating to Banks in India by Reserve Bank of India, Bombay (1966).].

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