For depositors of the contaminated Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Financial institution, the state of affairs will not be very completely different from what it was nearly a yr in the past when the RBI positioned withdrawal restrictions on the financial institution after the mega rip-off involving misreporting of loans with senior financial institution officers” involvement got here to mild.
Precisely one yr in the past, on September 23, 2019, the Reserve Financial institution of India had outmoded the board of the multi-state city cooperative financial institution and positioned it below numerous regulatory restrictions after detection of sure monetary irregularities.
Initially, the RBI had allowed depositors to withdraw Rs 1,000 which was later raised to Rs 1 lakh per account to mitigate their difficulties. In June this yr, the RBI had prolonged the regulatory restrictions on the cooperative financial institution by one other six months until December 22, 2020.
PMC Financial institution depositors have spent the final one yr holding protests, assembly politicians, writing to varied authorities in an effort to get their hard-earned a reimbursement. There are a lot of senior citizen depositors whose life financial savings are caught within the fraud-hit financial institution.
“We’ve organised numerous morchas (protest), met RBI officers, politicians however nothing has occurred. We’re actually upset,” mentioned S Borkar, one of many depositors of the financial institution.
Based on PMC Financial institution Depositors” Affiliation member, Anita Lohia, the RBI has allowed depositors to withdraw Rs 1 lakh within the final one yr which is a meagre quantity for anybody.
“The day when the restriction was imposed on PMC Financial institution, we had thought that the state of affairs will get normalised in few days or months. It”s been one yr however nothing has occurred. With simply Rs 1 lakh, it’s actually troublesome for us to maintain life for a complete yr in a metropolis like Mumbai,” Lohia mentioned.
Based on her, practically 70 PMC financial institution depositors have misplaced their lives up to now one yr.
Depositors had deliberate to organise a protest in entrance of RBI”s headquarters within the Fort space on Wednesday however they could not get permission from the police, she added.
They, nonetheless, have some hope from the passage of modification to the Banking Regulation Act to deliver cooperative banks below the supervision of the RBI.
“We hope for some decision quickly with passage of (modification to) the invoice,” Lohia mentioned.
The financial institution has a powerful presence in Maharashtra with 103 out of its 137 branches located within the state. Of the 103 branches, practically 81 are in Mumbai and adjoining areas comparable to Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar district.
On Tuesday, the RBI appointed a brand new administrator at PMC Financial institution after current administrator, J B Bhoria, stepped down resulting from well being causes. A Okay Dixit, ex-general supervisor, Union Financial institution of India, has been appointed as the brand new administrator of the financial institution.
When contacted, Dixit mentioned the main focus shall be on discovering an answer to revive the cooperative financial institution in order that the curiosity of the depositors is protected.
“My solely intention is to revive the financial institution and save the curiosity of the depositors whose cash is caught up there,” Dixit instructed PTI.
The group on the financial institution is working to discover a viable and everlasting resolution in order that depositors get entry to their whole cash, he mentioned.
The RBI on Tuesday additionally mentioned big losses and erosion of deposits at PMC Financial institution proceed to trigger hindrance in its revival.
“Whereas the administrator of PMC financial institution and the RBI have been exploring numerous choices for decision of the financial institution, a number of components comparable to big losses incurred by the financial institution leading to its whole internet value getting worn out, steep erosion in deposits, and so forth. proceed to pose severe challenges find a workable plan for revival of the financial institution,” RBI mentioned on Tuesday.
It mentioned the financial institution has additionally been making efforts for restoration of NPAs though progress has been constrained due to the COVID-19 pandemic and authorized complexities.
Nonetheless, within the curiosity of depositors, the PMC Financial institution and the RBI are persevering with to have interaction with stakeholders to discover the potential of discovering a viable and workable resolution for the decision of the financial institution, RBI additional mentioned.
PMC Financial institution had hidden and misreported loans given to actual property developer HDIL. Its publicity to HDIL Group was over Rs 6,500 crore, practically 73 per cent of its complete mortgage guide dimension of Rs 8,880 crore as of September 19, 2019. As on March 31, 2019, its deposit base was Rs 11,617.34 crore.
The misdoing on the financial institution was leaked by one in all its board members to the RBI, forcing its former managing director, Pleasure Thomas, to admit to the regulator about misreporting of loans.
Thomas together with the financial institution’s former chairman Waryam Singh have been arrested in October final yr. The Financial Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police had later arrested few extra officers of the financial institution within the fraud case.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
