Panic
gripped customers of the South Bengaluru-based urban co-operative bank
(UCB), Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank, after RBI cracked the whip on
the bank by limiting withdrawals by depositors to just Rs 35,000.
Thousands of customers thronged all eight branches of the bank across
the city on Monday, but the bank's top management avoided any
interaction with them.
The bank had called for a meeting of the depositors to address the
concerns at Sri Guru Narasimha Kalyana Mandira on Bull Temple Road on
Monday evening. However, the UCB's founder and
president K Ramakrishna,
who was slated to address over 15,000 depositors assembled there, didn't
show up, with the bank citing that he was "stuck in a traffic jam"
throughout the one-hour long meeting.
While many depositors that DH spoke to were unhappy with the bank's
response to the situation and were sensing some foul play, the
management played down their concerns multiple times by stating, "We
won't cheat you."
Most of the bank's depositors included senior citizens and
pensioners, who had deposited their money because of their affiliations.
"Most of the customers at the bank have been lured in the name of
religion. They came to our Mutt and marketed themselves there. So, most
of the customers followed it blindly," said a young chartered accountant
whose family has deposits worth Rs 15 lakh in the bank.
Yet another customer blamed the bank's management for flouting RBI
guidelines over the issue. "Obviously, they wouldn't have adhered with
RBI guidelines. Why would the RBI even crack down against it," asked
another customer standing in a long queue outside the bank's branch in
Basavangudi.
As the concerns of the customers increased during the day, many other
UCBs also got hit in the city, as depositors went on a withdrawal
spree, said one of the directors of a city-based UCB.
Even as the bank's management avoided giving reasons for RBI's
crackdown, sources in the know said the bank had seen defaults of Rs 350
crore in the past three months — which translated into a whopping 30.4%
of their Rs 1,150.94 crore advances.
The bank's CEO M V Maiya declined to comment.
The bank had 8,614 members at the end of March 31, 2018, pitching up a
share capital worth Rs 52 crore. The bank’s advances stood at Rs
1,150.94 crore, while the reported gross NPA ratio stood at a mere
0.45%, as reported. The company, however, hasn’t filed any financials
for this year.