Page 18 - Banking Finance January 2022

CO-OPERATIVE BANK NEWS

Smita Sandhane, Chief Manager According to the bank's website, it has (USFB). Further action with regard to
Anand Chalke, Zonal Managers Pallavi a total business of Rs.67,000 crore sanction of the scheme is under pro-
Sali, Ratnakar Prabhakar, Vishrantwadi plus, 283 branches and over 311 ATMs. cess," an RBI notification read.
Branch Manager Abhishek Bhagat, "It is hereby notified for the informa-
and others. RBI extends regulatory re- tion of the public that the validity of
At the heart of the matter is a dubi- strictions on PMC Bank by the aforesaid Directive dated Septem-
ous transaction. The incident allegedly ber 23, 2019, as modified from time to
took place between 2018 and 2020. 3 months till March 31, time, has been extended for a further
The complainant's company had a 2022
term loan account with Saraswat The central bank said the sanction of period from January 1, 2022, to March
Bank's Vishrantwadi branch. 31, 2022, subject to review. All other
the scheme of amalgamation with Unity terms and conditions of the Directives
The Saraswat bank officials allegedly Small Finance Bank was under process
made a bogus loan account and then after comments were received. under reference shall remain un-
sent a proposal to the company on Au- changed," the central bank said.
"The Reserve Bank of India had pre-
gust 13, 2018 for a one-time settle- In September 2019, the RBI had super-
ment of Rs 13 crore. The bank alleg- pared a draft scheme of amalgamation seded the board of PMC Bank and
edly misused cheques given as security of The Punjab and Maharashtra Coop- placed it under regulatory restrictions,
for a term-loan account by paying Rs erative (PMC) Bank with Unity Small
2.5 crore for the fake loan account, Finance Bank Ltd. (USFB). including the cap on withdrawals by
the report said. The draft scheme was placed in the customers, after detection of certain
financial irregularities, hiding and
Started in 1918, Saraswat Bank claims public domain on November 22, 2021,
to be the largest Urban Co-operative inviting suggestions and objections, till misreporting of loans given to real es-
Bank in India and has operations in six December 10, 2021, from members, tate developer HDIL. The restrictions
states - Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, depositors and other creditors of trans- have been extended several times
Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. feror bank (PMC) and transferee bank since then. T

Banks' gross NPAs declined to 6.9% at September end from 8.2% in

March 2020, says RBI report

Scheduled commercial banks' (SCB) gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declined from 8.2 percent at end-March 2020
to 7.3 percent at end-March 2021 and further to 6.9 percent at end-September 2021, the RBI said in its report on
Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2020-21 released on December 28.
Also, the return on assets (RoA) of SCBs improved from 0.2 percent at end-March 2020 to 0.7 percent at end-March
2021, aided by stable income and decline in expenditure, the report said. The report has presented the performance
of the banking sector, including co-operative banks, and non-banking financial institutions during 2020-21 and 2021-
22 so far.
Further, the report said some of the policy measures taken by the RBI in response to the COVID-19 pandemic reached
the pre-announced sunset dates in 2021-22. Certain liquidity measures have been wound down as a result, while other
regulatory measures, including deferment of implementation of net stable funding ratio (NSFR), restrictions on divi-
dend payouts by banks, deferment of implementation of the last tranche of capital conservation buffer, have been
realigned to avoid extended forbearance and risks to financial stability while providing targeted support to needy
sectors, the RBI said.
"Even though initiation of fresh insolvency proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) was suspended
for a year till March 2021, it constituted one of the major modes of recovery in terms of amount recovered," the RBI
report said.

18 | 2022 | JANUARY | BANKING FINANCE