The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has already increased withdrawal limit for Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank account holders last month, is considering to increase the withdrawal limit further by next week.
Earlier, RBI has increased the limit to Rs 10,000 for the bank customers for the next six months. The move has benefitted over sixty per cent of the bank’s customers.
“While there is not much trouble for retail depositors, a large number of retail investors have already exited the bank. Still, there are large number of depositors, housing societies, Gurdwaras and a few small businesses stuck with their money. The withdrawal limit will be relaxed further by next week. We are in touch with RBI over the issue,” said a senior official, Department of Financial Services (DFS).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met depositors of PMC Bank during her visit to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office in Mumbai last week.
Assuring account holders of support, Sitharaman said on October 12 that she spoke to the RBI governor, who assured that customers’ concerns will be top priority.
During the meeting, some members of the Sikh community had said that they are facing a lot of trouble to run the management of Gurdwaras due to RBI’s restrictions on the crisis-hit PMC Bank. As their biggest festival Prakash Purab will be celebrated on November 12, they are facing problems while preparing for the festival and paying salaries to their staff.
According to the RBI, more than 60 per cent of the accounts held less than `10,000 and they have already exited the bank so the committees had requested to increase the withdrawal limit to at least `1 lakh, the official said.
“About 70 per cent of the retail depositors have already withdrawn their money. So for the big account holders, the withdrawal limit can be enhanced further to Rs 1 lakh. The central bank will take a final call. The finance minister is personally reviewing the situation and no depositors will lose their money,” the official added.
Meanwhile, the RBI’s central board on October 11 discussed in detail the regulatory and supervisory architecture of commercial and cooperative banks in Chandigarh, a day after the finance minister announced setting up of a panel to recommend legislative changes to ensure better governance of cooperative banks.