This page is informational and is not legal advice. It describes rules, orders and rulings as published or reported on the dates shown; read the primary text before relying on any of it.
A UCB tier is one of four size categories the Reserve Bank of India assigns to every urban co-operative bank, based on the value of its deposits. Tier 1 covers all unit and salary-earners' banks regardless of size, plus other UCBs with deposits up to ₹100 crore. Tier 2 runs from ₹100 crore to ₹1,000 crore. Tier 3 runs from ₹1,000 crore to ₹10,000 crore. Tier 4 covers UCBs above ₹10,000 crore. This four-tier framework was announced in December 2022 as part of a wider revised regulatory structure for the sector.
Since RBI's Branch Authorisation Directions of 4 December 2025, the tier a bank sits in decides something very concrete for a pigmy deposit depositor. Clause 74 states it directly: Tier 3 and 4 UCBs may offer doorstep banking, including pigmy-style cash collection, "either directly through its own employees or through agents," while "Tier 1 and 2 UCBs shall offer doorstep banking services only through their permanent employees." How many banks this affects depends on how many sit in Tier 1 and 2, a count this entry does not give because we have not verified a current figure.
Pigmity found no published count of how many UCBs sit in each tier, so the practical scale of this change is not something we could quantify. The tier rule binds UCBs only; it has no bearing on district central co-operative banks, patpedhis, Souharda co-operatives or Nidhi companies, which are outside RBI's doorstep banking framework altogether.