Saraswat Bank willing to manage 2 co-operatives

Saraswat bank management, in its 'irrevokable' proposal has said, once the two debt-ridden banks start making profits, they would be merged with the Saraswat Bank.

The development is considered to be important especially in case of SSSB, as the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has already forwarded a proposal to the RBI to manage the assets and liabilities of the SSSB. The RCB has prevailing losses worth Rs 500 crore while the amount is Rs 280 crore in case of SSSB.

 

The Saraswat Cooperative Bank, as per the proposal, would entirely manage the operations of these two banks and would have control over strategy, decision making and re-shuffling of staff.

"As per our calculations, the Rupee Cooperative bank would be in profits in next four years while the period would be three years for to get Shree Suvarna Sahakari bank out of losses. Our proposal is irreversible and the two banks would be merged into Saraswat bank once they come out of losses," said Eknath Thakur, Chairman, Saraswat Bank Merger Committee.

"If the RBI approves our proposal, then from day one, all the depositors of the two debt-ridden banks would be allowed to withdraw all their deposits from the banks," Thakur added.

The RCB has 36 branches across Maharashtra and five extension counters run by 1,098 employees. The bank has advances of Rs 900 crore while the deposits are worth Rs 1,625 crore and does an overall business of Rs 2,524 crore. The SSSB, which saw appointment of an administrator last year, has 12 bracnhes and 377 staffers. It has deposits worth Rs 728 crore and advances of Rs 453 crore while its business stands at Rs 1,180 crore.

Commenting on the IOB proposal for SSSB, Thakur said, "We do not want a private bank to overtake a cooperative bank in any case. Our proposal in strong and so far, we have successfully merged five cooperative banks into Saraswat bank."

Saraswat Bank presently does business worth Rs 18,879.13 crore and has posted profits of Rs 202.26 crore during the last financial year.