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A patpedhi, also written pat sanstha, is a credit co-operative society in Maharashtra, registered under the state's co-operative societies law and regulated by the state Registrar of Co-operative Societies rather than by the Reserve Bank of India. Patpedhis are among the largest users of daily-deposit collection in India: Maharashtra's Cooperation Department has counted roughly 16,000 credit co-operatives in the state, served by about two lakh agents, reaching close to one crore families.
Because a patpedhi is a society and not a bank, none of the banking-specific protections that apply to a urban co-operative bank or DCCB apply to it automatically. The DICGC states plainly that primary co-operative societies are not insured by it, and RBI's doorstep banking rules, the receipt, the same-day credit, the disclosed charges, bind co-operative banks, not societies. A patpedhi's agent policy and any commission cap instead come from the state Registrar; Maharashtra capped pigmy-agent commission at credit co-operatives at 2.5% from April 2026, later raised to 3%.
Patpedhis often run the smallest minimums in the market: Shivsahyadri Sahakari Patpedhi advertises daily deposits from ₹20, and other Maharashtra societies have been reported with minimums as low as ₹5. That accessibility is the product's appeal and also its risk: because deposit insurance and RBI's doorstep rules do not reach a patpedhi, a depositor's protection depends entirely on the society's own governance, and who bears the agent's commission at a patpedhi is, by the state federation's own account, often unclear and undocumented.