Unity Small Finance Bank paid approximately Rs 3,800 crore to depositors of the scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank) on Thursday, 31st March, after the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) certified approximately 850,000 such valid accounts earlier in the day.
Abhinav Khare, the CEO of Asianet and also BharatPe co-founder and CEO took to Twitter on Friday, April 1 to share the news.
Did you know yesterday 8.5 lakh PMC Bank depositors got back their life savings (total Rs 3800 crores) from the consortium led by BharatPe that acquired PMC? #techtwitter & #IndianStartups media should talk more about such development rather than gossips about @Ashneer_Grover
— Abhinav Khare (@iabhinavKhare) April 1, 2022
Meanwhile, the Economic Times also quoted Jaspal Bindra, the executive chairman of Centrum Group as informing, “Unity SFB received from DICGC a certified list of erstwhile PMC Bank depositors who are eligible to receive up to Rs 5 lakh of their deposits, post banking hours today.”
According to reports, a depositor received his/her money up to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh as per the insurance plan. This means that if the total deposit outstanding is less than the benchmark size, the depositor received the full amount.
Reports suggest that Unity SFB immediately credited the deposit amount to all depositors’ bank accounts soon after its holders sent confirmation of their credit balance via the Unity Bank App.
“To help immediately fund these accounts Unity SFB has taken cash assistance from DICGC which it will repay at a future date,” said Bindra. The bank, according to reports, has taken a loan of over Rs 3,700 crore, which will be repaid over a period of time.
It may be noted that Unity Small Finance Bank Limited, a joint venture between Centrum Group and BharatPe, had commenced operations as a small finance bank with effect from November 1, 2021. Unity Small Finance Bank had, after the RBI nod, taken over the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC Bank), one of the largest cooperative banks, which was put under scrutiny by the Reserve Bank for a massive over Rs 7,000-crore fraud and misreporting of bad loans.
The Centrum group owns 51 per cent in the Unity Small Finance Bank and the remaining equity is held by the Gurugram-based Bharatpe.
PMC Bank fraud: RBI takes action, Mumbai police file FIR forms SIT to probe the case
The Reserve Bank of India had seized the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC), capped cash withdrawals and launched an investigation into its accounting lapses on September 24, 2019.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police had filed FIR against HDIL and Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank officials in the PMC bank fraud case.
The FIR had stated that irregularities worth Rs 4,355.46 crores have been committed in the case, although the amount could go up during the course of the investigation. The police had said that it would investigate cases of violation of RBI norms in not disclosing NPA and exceeding lending limits for single entities, undue favour given to HDIL, and any instance of quid-pro-quo between the bank’s board of directors and the borrower company. The FIR mentioned that the bank kept its NPA data hidden from RBI by using fake loan documents.
Following this, the Mumbai Police’s EOW had arrested HDIL directors Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan in connection with a fraud of over Rs 4,355 crores. According to the reports, PMC Bank officials gave loans to HDIL between the year 2008 and August 2019 despite the HDIL group promoters, Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhawan, defaulting on previous loans.
Wife of Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut summoned by ED in connection with bank scam
The Enforcement Directorate had also registered a case of money laundering and initiated their own investigation into the scam. Senior NCP leader Praful Patel was also accused of having links with the Wadhwans. In fact, in December 2020, the wife of motormouth Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, Varsha Raut, had been summoned by Enforcement Directorate on the 29th of December in connection with the PMC Bank scam.
Later in January 2021, the Enforcement Directorate had revealed that Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha repaid a Rs 55 lakhs of ‘friendly loan’ she had taken from a bank scam accused’s wife soon after the investigative agency summoned her to seek an explanation.
RBI clears the decks for the takeover of the scam-hit PMC
On June 19, 2021, RBI had finally cleared the decks for the takeover of the scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) by the consortium of the non-bank lender, Centrum Financial Services and fintech startup BharatPe. This was the first time after a gap of nearly six years that the central bank issued a new bank licence.
The RBI move came as a ray of hope for the depositors of the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC), whose funds have been stuck for over three years now.
