What is Regional Rural Banks?

 Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) are government-owned scheduled commercial banks of India that operate at the regional level in different states of India. These banks are under the ownership of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. They were created to serve rural areas with basic banking and financial services. However, RRBs also have urban branches.

The area of operation is limited to the area notified by the government of India covering, and it covers one or more districts in the State. RRBs perform various functions such as providing banking facilities to rural and semi-urban areas.

Regional Rural Banks were established in 1975 under the provisions of the Ordinance promulgated on 26th September 1975 and Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976.

After the changes during the 1990s, the public authority 2005 06 started a consolidation program bringing about the quantity of RRBs declining from 196 in 2005 to 43 in FY21, and 30 of the 43 RRBs announced net benefits.