In a recent development Maharashtra State Registrar of cooperative societies Mr Satish Soni has sent a proposal to Reserve Bank of India for allowing a partial merger of Rupee Cooperative Bank’s assets and liabilities with the leading bank of Thane i.e. TJSB Sahakari Bank.
But the matter has failed to progress due to lack of clarity. “There are no proper guidelines issued by RBI for partial merger of two cooperative banks so far”, informed Sunil Sathe, CEO of TJSB Sahakari Bank to Indian Cooperative.
There have been instances when partial mergers have been allowed in the case of commercial banking sector but co-op banking sector has no such experience so far, informed sources say.
Readers would recall that recently the state registrar Satish Soni called a meeting of Sudhir Pandit, chairman of the board of administrators of Rupee Cooperative Bank and Sunil Sathe, CEO of TJSB Sahakari Bank in Vashi. The meeting was presided over by the State Registrar but the meeting failed to find out a way to help investors.
The Pune-based Rupee Cooperative Bank has been under special directions of the RBI since 2013. Alarmed by the increasing bad debts of the bank, the RBI had suspended the then board of directors of the bank and put it under directions, which put sanctions on the functioning of the bank. The bank has more than six lakh depositors across the state.
At present, the total liabilities of Rupee Cooperative Bank are around Rs 1364 crore and the bank has ready realizable assets of Rs 924 crore which leaves a gap of Rs 440 crore.
The RBI had first imposed restrictions on the bank from February 22, 2013, to August 21, 2013, and extended it on eight occasions six months each, and on four occasions three months each.
TJSB is a multistate scheduled cooperative bank with 136 branches across Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh with Rs 15,000 crore business.