PMC Bank rearrangement of scheme by RBI by Jan-end: BJP delegation

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) assured a delegation of BJP leaders that a rearrangement of scheme for the revival of troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC Bank) will be ready by January-end.

In September, the RBI had restricted activities the bank's activities for six months and sacked the board of directors on account of major financial irregularities, failure of internal control and systems of the bank, and wrong or under-reporting of its exposures under various off-site surveillance reports.

That left thousands of customers clamouring for withdrawal of deposits.

"The RBI told us that three reports are expected in the coming two weeks. The officials said and they will be able to decide on the issue in a better way about the rearrangement of scheme for PMC Bank revival after that," said former member of Parliament Kirit Somaiya.

He was accompanied by BJP leaders Gopal Shetty, Pravin Darekar, Atul Bhatkalkar, Amit Satam, Mihir Kotecha and Mahesh Baldi who urged the central bank to increase the withdrawal limit up to Rs 70,000 (from the current Rs 50,000) and look into the possibility of PMC's merger with another bank.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das was accompanied by Executive Directors Rabi Mishra and Lilly Vadera during the 45-minute meeting.

The three reports which under discussion were Enforcement Directorate's conclusion about alleged benami properties of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL), a forensic audit report by the auditors appointed by the new administration of PMC, and verification of documents provided by HDIL while mortgaging the property to take loans from PMC.

HDIL promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan and PMC ex-chairman Waryam Singh allegedly siphoned funds from PMC Bank by using overdraft facilities and the money was disguised as loan accounts by bank officials.

The city police suspects that the entire amount of over Rs 6,500 crore was withdrawn fraudulently using this modus operandi. The Enforcement Directorate is also probing cases of money laundering in the matter.