The origin of the Co-operative Banking system in Travancore can be traced back to 1914. Until 1951 , the co-operative sector was governed by the Travancore Co-operative societies Act of 1936. With the formation of the Kerala State in 1956, the Travancore State Co-operative Bank was converted to The Kerala State Coooperative Bank. To cater to the needs ofthe farmers, a branch of KSCB was opened in Alappuzha in 1957. During the second 5 year plan, the Co-operative movement in the Banking sector received a boost and the branch of the KSCB at Alappuzha was converted to the Alappuzha District Cooperative Bank in 1958. At its inception on 01/09/1958, bank had 180 Primary Societies as members, share capital of 1.67 lakhs, deposit of Rs.53000/- and loan from Apex Bank of Rs.11.27Iakhs. Thus the initial working capital of Bank was 13.47 lakhs. As on 15/12/2009, Bank has total deposits of Rs.949.29 Crores, advances of Rs.636.71 Crores and share capital of Rs.7 .64Crores.

    The town of Alappuzha owes its very existence to Raja Kesavadas, who was the Dewan of Travancore during the reign of Raja Rama Varma. When the different nations of the West were fighting for supremacy in Travancore , Kesavadas tried to assert the supremacy ofTravancore by obtaining pepper monolpoly. For exporting the product to foreign markets a port was found to be highly essential. Owing to the advantages presented by the physical and geographical factors and then existed modes of transport, Alappuzha was selected as the site to build the port and thus the first planned town in South came into being. The principal crops of the region are paddy and coconut. Paddy cultivation is centered around the Kuttanad belt which covers 1.5lakh acres. There are about 1100 blocks of paddy fields known as Padashekarams. It is only in Kuttanad where paddy is being cultivated in fields lying 1 to 1.5m below sea level. The other crops are coconut, tapioca and rubber in a small area.