Pigmy collection in Maharashtra

Maharashtra is the only state for which we have found a reported count of daily-collection agents, and it is the state where the economics of the job are regulated.

Reported figures put roughly two lakh agents across some 16,000 credit co-operatives, serving about one crore families. We have found no comparable published figure for any other state.

The commission cap, and the reversal

The state Cooperation Department capped pigmy agent commission at 2.5% for urban and rural non-agricultural credit co-operatives with effect from 1 April 2026. The order was explicit that commission is payable for mobilising deposits, not for assisting with loan disbursal or recovery.

Agents and their federations objected, and the Cooperation Commissioner raised the cap to 3% in June 2026.

Who bears it here

This is the one state where the question of who actually pays the commission is openly contested. The chairman of the state federation of credit societies is on record that the commission is typically borne by customers rather than by the institutions. The mechanism, whether a deduction from each deposit, a lower rate or a closure charge, is not documented anywhere we could find.

For banks the position is different and clearer: the bank pays the agent and the depositor's balance is not reduced. The distinction is set out in pigmy agent commission.

What the directory records here

Maharashtra holds more institutions in Pigmity's directory than any other state, and they straddle the line that decides a depositor's protection:

• Cosmos Bank, an urban co-operative bank publishing a rate for the collected product but not the method by which interest is applied.
• Latur Urban Co-operative Bank, which publishes the sharpest exit term we have recorded: a deduction from the deposit itself on closure before six months.
• Sangli Urban Co-operative Bank's Bachat Nidhi, which states a method and a minimum but no rate.
• Shivdaulat Bank, a co-operative bank whose category is not stated on the page we read.
• Kokan Mercantile Co-operative Bank, a multi-state co-operative bank whose scheme page gives neither rate, term nor exit rule.
• Sahayog Multistate, a multi-state credit society in Gondia collecting ₹50 a day at a published 6%, and Shiv Sahyadri Patpedhi, collecting from ₹20 a day at 5% with a loan of up to 75% of the balance. Neither is a bank, and neither carries deposit insurance — the distinction this page keeps returning to.
• Indrayani Co-operative Bank, in Pimpri, whose representative collects at the door and whose published rate is credited every quarter rather than at maturity.

Whether any of these sits inside the Reserve Bank's ombudsman scheme depends on category and on deposit size, and for a society the answer is that it does not: where to complain sets out the test.

Institution types

Collection here runs predominantly through credit co-operative societies and patpedhis rather than banks. That is the important detail for a depositor, because a society is registered with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies rather than supervised by RBI, and its deposits are not covered by DICGC.