Cooperative banks seem to be still failing to comply with guidelines set by regulator Reserve Bank of India thereby leading to the apex bank regularly imposing fines on them.

Since January 2011, as many as 48 of such banks have been imposed with fines by the apex bank on grounds of non adherence to Know Your Customer (KYC) norms as well as Anti Money Laundering (AML) norms.

Strikingly out of these 48 lenders, 36 happen to be Gujarat based banks which have been penalised in the range of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

"RBI is sending out the right signal as KYC has been a problem not only with co-operative banks but other private scheduled banks as well. In Gujarat, around 50 cent of banking transactions happen through co-operative banks and it's a serious concern that such a large number of banks have been found flouting KYC norms and AML guidelines in Gujarat," said a senior RBI official.

"RBI inspections have been done in co-operative banks just a few days before they stopped honouring cheques but no indication of the wrongdoing was found. Now, they are penalizing unit co-operative banks located in remote corners which are hardly aware of the banking regulation act," said a co-operative bank manager.