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Sahakar Bharati on Wedesday said the Government of India (GoI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should review the Scheme of Amalgamation of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank with Unity Small Finance Bank (Unity SFB) to mitigate the hardships being faced by PMC Bank’s depositors, who are victims of fraud.
GoI had sanctioned and notified the above scheme for the amalgamation on January 25, 2022, with RBI stating that all the branches of PMC Bank will function as branches of Unity SFB with effect from this date.
Sahakar Bharati, which is an umbrella body of co-operative institutions, in a statement, said it will join forces with PMC Depositors/ Associations and will appeal to the Supreme Court to take Suo Moto cognizance of the hardships PMC Depositors are facing.
Depositors who have more than Rs 15 lakh balance with PMC Bank, say the scheme is loaded against them as they will have to wait for 10 years to get back their deposits in excess of Rs 15 lakh.
USFB will return deposits up to Rs 15 lakh to PMC Bank depositors over a five-year period beginning January 25, 2022 (the appointed date for PMC Bank’s merger with USFB).
Under the scheme, PMC Bank depositors will not be paid any interest on the balances they have with USFB for five years from the appointed date. Thereafter, the balances will earn 2.75 per cent simple interest.
“The PMC Bank failure is not like the failure of other banks. It is the result of the failure of auditors and inspecting officers who failed to detect the fraud being perpetrated for a long time.
“Depositors, including institutional depositors and senior citizens, had depended on audited and published annual reports while placing their deposits with PMC Bank,” said Uday Joshi, National General Secretary, Sahakar Bharati, in a statement.
Therefore, depositors cannot be faulted for their judgement. Hence, equity demands that justice be meted out to all hapless depositors who are victims of fraud, he added.
Joshi underscored that the terms of the amalgamation are totally one sided and most unfair to PMC Bank depositors.
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