Church gives up bid for Catholic Bank

After one-and-a-half decade of rivalry and public sparring, the Catholic church in Kerala said it was giving up efforts to wrest control of Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB), which has many community members as shareholders. It, however, vowed to resist any move to shift the headquarters out of Thrissur, or rename the lender.

“Neither the Archdiocese of Thrissur, nor the CSB Protection Committee or the Catholic community, has any enmity towards the bank now. It is running well under the stewardship of V P Iswardas (managing director and chief executive),” said Archdiocese of Thrissur Auxiliary Bishop Mar Raphael Thattill.

On this change of stance, the Bishop said, “The Archdiocese is not in a position to put up a strong fight to control the bank. The shares held by the Catholic community and the church together are under 10 per cent only.”

 

The church was happy to cooperate with the management for the bank’s progress, the bishop said. However, he added, “If the bank attempts to deviate from the objectives of its original promoters, like shifting the headquarters out of Thrissur, or changes its name, we will resist such moves.”

CSB Protection Committee Convener Johny Chandy concurred saying, “We are not pursuing efforts to take over CSB, as we have been unable to buy shares from (Surachan) Chawla. However, we will ensure the bank maintains the spirit of its initial promoters and upholds the interests of the Catholic community.”

Chandy’s family, one of the promoters of the bank, said CSB was initially set up by 30 Syrian Catholic families of Thrissur in November 1920.

Non-Executive Chairman S Santhanakrishan refused to comment, saying, “I am not aware of such a development, as the church has not spoken to us in this regard.”

One of the directors, S Antharaman, said he could not comment, as “all directors have been asked not to talk to the media”. Managing Director and Chief Executive Iswardas said, ”The bank has no plan to move out of the city, or rename itself. It’s avowed policy to run the 90-year-old organisation in adherence to the objectives of its promoters.”

As to how they would ensure that the management, especially the largest shareholder Chawla, who was antagonistic to the idea of the Church members taking over the bank, adheres to this, Chandy said, “We’ll closely monitor the functioning of the bank. We’ll go to any extent to protect our interests, including approaching courts or the government, as we did in the past.”