Around 200 entities under scanner for taking illegal deposits in West Bengal

Around 200 entities which have been collecting deposits in unauthorised ways in West Bengal are under the scanner of regulators of financial markets and law enforcing agencies, a top official of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Friday.

"Some entities are placing advertisements in the newspapers offering cheap unsecured loans with minimum documentation. In the advertisements, these entities, in some cases, furnish one mobile number as a contact, instead of giving company name. They also claim to be a registered entity with RBI,"said RBI's Regional Director Rekha Warriar.

"It has been observed through various market intelligence inputs that most of these companies are fraudulent," she said.

"In order to fight against fraudulent entities, state level coordination committee meeting is being organised regularly. A sub-group comprising of officials from regulators of financial markets, state level law enforcing agencies have been reviewing market intelligence inputs every month. About 200 entities are under observation," she added.

"The entities are taking deposits illegally in the name of collective investment scheme, pure deposits scheme with abnormally high interest rate, advances against the supply and many other ways," said RBI Chief General Manager (Department of Non- Banking Supervision) G.N. Rath.

Citing an example of an entity- DICICI Bank of India, Rath said, "Action was taken quickly against this entity which was taking deposits from public offering jobs."

RBI has launched a website- "sanchet" to spread awareness among the public.

--IANS

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