Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2019-05-28

Drafting of a Bill for Regulating the Co-operative Sector

- At present, 2,269 Co-operative Rural Banks, 17 Co-operative Rural Bank Unions and 8,004 Financial Service Co-operative Societies are in operation through out the Island. The cash deposits collected from the members and non-members by the Co-operative Rural Bank System amount to approximately Rs.115 billion and around Rs.59.8 billion has been issued as a total sum of credit. In addition, around Rs.104 billion has been collected from the other financial services co-operative societies and about Rs.95 billion has been issued as a total sum of credit. It has been observed that, although the co-operative movement is financially strong as stated above, as a result of the poor financial management of certain financial services co-operative societies, the movement had been subject to Capital losses and the funds have reached a level of insecurity. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen, the Minister of Industry & Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons, Co-operative Development and Vocational Training & Skills Development, to introduce a Bill to provide necessary legal provision for resolving the issues faced by the co-operative financial sector and for the regulation, supervision, promotion and the issue of permits, to Co-operative Rural Banks and other Financial Service Cooperative Societies, was approved by the Cabinet.