A district central co-operative bank (DCCB) is a co-operative bank that operates at the district level, sitting between village- and town-level co-operative credit institutions and the state co-operative banking structure. Like an urban co-operative bank, a DCCB is a licensed bank, regulated by the Reserve Bank of India under the Banking Regulation Act alongside the state or central Registrar of Co-operative Societies for its co-operative affairs.
DCCBs are especially common in Karnataka, where institutions such as Chikkamagaluru District Central Co-operative Bank run pigmy deposit accounts with minimums as low as ₹100 and tenures from 12 to 60 months. Chikkamagaluru DCC Bank, for example, pays 1.00% a year on its pigmy scheme and pays no interest at all on an account closed inside 12 months, terms that show how much a scheme's small print can matter more than its headline rate.
The practical points that distinguish a DCCB from a credit society or patpedhi follow from its status as a bank. Because it is licensed by RBI, deposits at a DCCB carry DICGC insurance up to ₹5,00,000 per depositor, and its doorstep collection, if it uses agents, falls under RBI's doorstep banking rules, a receipt, same-day or next-working-day crediting, and disclosed charges. A patpedhi or credit society offering what looks like an identical daily-deposit account has none of those protections as a matter of right, because it answers only to its state Registrar.