Bhubaneswar: The Department of Financial Services (DFS) has notified amalgamation of 26 Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), including two from Odisha, as part of the Government of India’s ‘One state-one RRB’ scheme. This is fourth phase of amalgamation of RRBs.
Odisha Gramya Bank and Utkal Grameen Bank will be merged into one entity from May 1, 2025. The Ministry of Finance has issued a notification for the consolidation of 26 RRBs across 11 states to achieve better operational efficiency and cost rationalization.
As per the gazette notification, RRBs in 11 states – Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are to be merged into a single entity for each state.
Considering the improvement in efficiency of the RRBs due to amalgamations in the past, Ministry of Finance had rolled out an amalgamation plan in November-2024 for consultation with stakeholders. After consultation with stakeholders, amalgamation of 26 RRBs in 10 States and 1 UT have been carried out with primary focus on improvement in scale efficiency and cost rationalization.
At present, 43 RRBs are functioning in 26 States and 2 UTs. Post amalgamation, there will be 28 RRBs in 26 states and 2 UTs with more than 22000 branches covering 700 districts. Their predominant area of operation is in rural areas with approx. 92% of branches in rural/semi urban areas.
In the previous 3 phases – Phase-I (FY 2006 to FY 2010) number of RRBs were reduced from 196 to 82, Phase-2 (FY 2013 – FY 2015) number of RRBs were reduced from 82 to 56 and Phase-3 (FY 2019 to FY 2021) number of RRBs were reduced from 56 to 43.
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