Bhima Subrahmanyam
Bhima Subrahmanyam has been associated with National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAFSCOB), an apex level organization of short-term cooperative credit and banking structure in India since 1982. He assumed the position of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Managing Director of NAFSCOB in 1990. Prior to joining NAFSCOB, Mr. Bhima has been associated with reputed institutions in India. He has over 50 years of experience in the areas of Rural communication, Rural Development, Agricultural Credit, Cooperatives, Banking etc.
He is author of more than 120 Articles, Research Papers, Occasional papers, etc. in the above areas which include Rural savings mobilisation. He participated in over 150 training programmes/workshops conferences and seminars. He coordinated more than 100 national level seminars/workshops on rural cooperative credit and banking issues. He served as resource person to number of programmes and shared his experiences on most important issues involved in cooperative credit delivery system. He addressed important issues in the areas of General Banking, Resource / Deposit banking and Social Banking. He has been instrumental in formulating Risk Management Policy, Information Technology Security Policy, Human Resource policy for banks, Fraud Monitoring guidelines, Cyber Security Advisory Forum etc. He addressed and analysed the impact of Prudential norms on cooperative banks.
He strongly advocates a three-tier rural cooperative credit delivery structure and continues to argue against the proposals towards mergers/delayering of well-conceived 3 Tier rural cooperative credit structure in a democratic set up. He has been successfully developed Operational Manuals to facilitate functioning of Cooperative Banks. He has also successfully disseminated the importance of Financial Inclusion and the role of cooperative Banks in Financial Inclusion.
He is elected President of International Cooperative Banking Association (ICBA), one of the sectoral associations of ICA since October 2019. He is member of ICA Board in his capacity as ICBA President.
During his tenure as President, ICBA, the following major studies/events have been commissioned and completed, in addition to couple of other studies and Webinars:
- Regulation and Sustainability of Cooperative Banks: A cross-country Study
- Sustainable Development Goals & Objectives: Contribution of Cooperative Banks
- ICBA Members Today: How Do They Contribute and Report on Sustainable Development?
- ICBA Centenary Year in Brussels in 2022
- ICBA under his presidentship organised International Symposium on ‘Cooperative Financial Institutions’ in United Nations, New York on 28-29 May 2026 wherein about 120 delegates from around 25 countries participated.
He has been closely associated with international organizations such as Asia Pacific Rural Agricultural Credit Association (APRACA), International Raiffeisen Union (IRU), International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), ICA-AP Regional Assembly,), Regional Network for the Development of Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia and Pacific (NEDAC).