The Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank is the federation of the District Central Cooperative Banks. It also channelises the refinance provided by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) towards short term and medium term agriculture and allied sector loans to District Central Cooperative Banks.The Bank maintains a fund called the Primary Cooperative Development Fund financed out of contribution of profit making Central Cooperative Banks and the Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank. The fund is utilized to strengthen the infrastructure facilities of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Banks in the State. The Bank is playing a major role in formulating the credit programmes as well as the credit policy for the Cooperative institutions in Tamil Nadu. The Apex Bank has been playing a major role by providing refinance facility for the successful running of the PDS in the State.

Functions of Tamil Nadu State Apex Cooperative Bank Ltd

• The state cooperative bank extends short, medium term loans and advances primarily for agricultural and other allied activities. It also provides credit for various rural development projects through district central cooperative banks, apex cooperative institutions, consortium arrangements directly through its head office and branches.
• In addition to providing loans and advances, it extends various other ancillary banking facilities such as hiring of safe deposit lockers , accepting of articles of safe custody, funds transfers etc.,
• The bank takes up the following activities towards affiliates development:-
•  It forms consortium of district central cooperative banks for financing various cooperative sugar mills in the state.
• It helps the district central cooperative banks channelise their investments both for statutory and non-statutory purposes. It assists them in trading in securities by providing expertise for buying and selling of securities.
• The bank has constituted the "Primary Cooperative Development Fund" for the purpose of providing financial assistance to primary agricultural cooperative banks in the state for construction of strong rooms, purchase of jewel safes, installation of defender doors, installation of modern banking counters etc.,
• The apex bank monitors the functioning of DCCBs in the state, inspects their activities periodically & provides necessary guidance for efficient running of the banks.
• The bank has formulated the deposit guarantee scheme for primary agricultural cooperative banks at the instance of Government of India / Government of Tamil Nadu with a view to providing insurance coverage for the deposits accepted by the primary agricultural cooperative banks.
• The bank has a separate cell for monitoring the progress made under development action plans for all the district central cooperative banks and primary agricultural cooperative banks in the state.
• The bank has created a technical cell for the purpose of providing technical expertise on project evaluation to all the district central cooperative banks for the purpose of clearing projects under non-farm sector schemes of National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development.
• The bank convenes state level technical committee meeting every year for fixing uniform scales of finance for all crops for each district in the state for financing seasonal agricultural operations.