Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday issued a draft circular on the revised guidelines of the Lead Bank Scheme for public comments, which can be submitted till March 6.
Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra had announced, as part of the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies on February 6, that revised guidelines on the Lead Bank Scheme would be issued shortly to streamline the operational aspects.
The revised guidelines aim to fine-tune the objectives of the Scheme; the structure, membership and agenda of various fora under the cheme; clear delineation of roles and responsibilities of key functionaries; and provisions to further strengthen the State Level Bankers’ Committee and Lead District Manager offices, according to an RBI statement.
“The comments on the draft Circular may be submitted by email with the subject line ‘Feedback on the Draft Circular on Lead Bank Scheme’. The last date for submission of comments is March 06, 2026,” the statement said.
The Lead Bank Scheme was introduced by the RBI in December 1969. The scheme aims at coordinating the activities of banks and other developmental agencies through various fora in order to achieve the objective of enhancing the flow of bank finance to priority sector and other sectors and to promote banks’ role in overall development of the rural sector.
For coordinating the activities in the district, a particular bank is assigned the lead bank responsibility of the district. The lead bank is expected to assume leadership role for coordinating the efforts of the credit institutions and Government.
In view of the number of changes that had taken place in the financial sector, the Lead Bank Scheme was last reviewed by the High Level Committee of the Reserve Bank of India in 2009.
The High Level Committee held wide ranging discussions with various stakeholders — State Governments, banks, development institutions, academicians, NGOs and MIFIs, etc — and noted that the scheme has been useful in achieving its original objectives of improvement in branch expansion, deposit mobilisation and lending to the priority sectors, especially in rural/semi urban areas.
There was overwhelming consensus that the scheme needs to continue. Based on the recommendations of the Committee, guidelines were issued to SLBC convenor banks and lead banks for implementation.
Envisaging a greater role for private sector banks, the lead banks were advised to ensure that private sector banks are more closely involved in the implementation of the Lead Bank Scheme.
The private sector banks should involve themselves more actively by leveraging on information technology, bringing in their expertise in strategic planning. They should also involve themselves in the preparation as well as implementation of the District Credit Plan.
(IANS)
