Deposit Insurance Corporation sees Rs 14,100-cr claims amid PMC crisis

The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation has received a total claim of about Rs 14,100 crore in case of defaulting co-operative banks amid massive scam at the now-crippled Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank, according to the RBI.

However, the regulator, the Financial Stability Report said, was quick to add that all the claims may not materialise at the same time and some may even revive.

The extent of devolvement on the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) in the event of all the banks "under direction" or weak banks going into liquidation or ordered to be wound up, would be Rs 14,098 crore as of September-end, said the RBI's Financial Stability Report released recently.

Cooperative banks have been under stress for long and the ongoing PMC Bank crisis, which involves a scam of Rs 6,500 crore that is 73 per cent of its total assets of around Rs 9,000 crore, is related to a single entity, the bankrupt HDIL, which has been gaming the bank since 2008.

The scam came out in September after an insider whistleblower approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forcing it to supersede the bank's management and put it under an administrator.

"It needs to be noted that banks which are under direction/weak will go under liquidation over a period, not together at a particular point of time. Weak banks may also witness a revival," the RBI said in the report.

Since January this year, nearly 30 cooperative banks have been placed under RBI administrators.

The break-up of the claim with DICGC shows Rs 3,414 crore in the case of state cooperative banks and district central cooperative banks, and Rs 10,684 crore in the case of urban cooperative banks, including PMC Bank, according to the RBI.

DICGC came into limelight since the RBI imposed deposit withdrawal restrictions on PMC Bank which has deposits of around Rs 11,800 crore.

As a percentage of the deposit insurance fund, these deposits are about 13.9 per cent, the RBI said.