PMC Bank Customers Protest Withdrawal Limit of Rs 1,000 by RBI

Customers stand outside the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank at GTB Nagar in Mumbai on Tuesday.

(Photo: PTI)

Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank customers are protesting outside its branches in Mumbai, on Tuesday, 24 September, a few hours after the Reserve Bank of India imposed new restrictions on it.

As per the RBI directions to PMC Bank, withdrawals have been capped at Rs 1,000 per account and the bank is not allowed to make any fresh loans.

The PMC Bank customers are worried about the fate of the ECS mandates and post-dated cheques they have given towards EMIs for home, auto, and vehicle loans.

'What Are We Supposed to Do?’ Confused Customers Ask

Rameshwar Singh Rajpurohit, 47, said “I have an OD (Overdraft Definition) of five lakhs, and eight lakhs are deposited in the bank, I am asking for three lakhs and I got to know about the news in the morning.”

He added that he has always been satisfied with the bank and this has happened for the first time.

Shankar Pawar, 37, said, “I have a current account in the bank under the name of my company, and the salaries of 15 of my employees were deducted from it. Now how am I supposed to pay them in the next six months?”

Another customer, Ganesh Mane, 28, said that around 5 lakhs are stuck in his account. I got a message at 9 am regarding the news. I came to get the renewal of the maturity of my FD. But it couldn't be done."

Ajay Raheja, 45, pointed out that the bank has been doing well, saying that he checked the bank’s balance sheet himself.

“I made a huge deposit on 22 September. On 23 September, I get to know that the bank is going defunct. It shouldn't have happened, I have even analysed the balance sheet of the bank. The bank has actually had a profit of 99 crores in the financial year that ended,” he said.

He further said, “I can’t understand that with an NPA of 2.99 percent in March, how can the irregularities, if there were any, increase so much in 5-6 months?”

The RBI monitors banks' health and issues such directions in case of concerns over financial health of an institution. However, no reasons were specified by the central bank for its restrictions on PMC Bank.

“The issue of the directions by the Reserve Bank should not, per se, be construed as cancellation of its banking licence. The bank will continue to undertake banking business with restrictions till further notice/instructions,” the RBI said in a notification.

The restrictions will be in force for six months, the RBI said.

According to PMC Bank's website, the lender was awarded the scheduled status in 2000 and has a presence in multiple states. The bank could not be reached for comments immediately.

(With inputs from PTI)