The administrative board of beleaguered Rupee Bank under the Chairmanship of Sudhir Pandit is doing a good job that has led to the RBI granting it another extension for 6 months. Pandit who earlier worked in the team of Mukund Abhyankar has made the UCB profitable for the first time after the crisis hit it.
Pune based UCB registered a profit of Rs 55 lakh in the last 6 months, reversing the 8-year trend. The recovery has also been on the rise with a figure of Rs 125 cr for the current fiscal. The aim is to make it an attractive brand so that it can be merged with other profit-making banks, said a source close to the new Administrative board appointed by the Maharashtra govt.
The tie-up efforts are going on with several suitors which include PSU banks and others. Sudhir Pandit, one of the Directors of Janata Sahkari Bank of Pune and an erstwhile member of the Board headed by Mukund Abhaynakar had taken over as the new Chairman of the reconstituted Board of ailing Rupee Bank in April last year.
The other members of the board include Arvind Khaladkar, Vijay Bhave and Sadanand Joshi. Readers would recall Mukund Abhayankar had resigned earlier when the majority of Board members opposed the RBI move to give Rs 20 thousand to depositors.
Rupee bank has about 6.2 lakh depositors. The RBI has placed restrictions on the bank since 2013 owing to its poor financial health. It has losses amounting to a whopping Rs 1400 crore. Depositors have not been able to withdraw money except for a meagre sum, unless they could provide proof of their hardship or requirement.
The maximum withdrawable amount has been capped at Rs 1 lakh per depositor. Under the Hardship Scheme, the bank has, so far, allowed its depositors to withdraw a cumulative Rs 225 crore, media reports say.
The board, till December 31, 2016, could recover Rs 105 crore under the liberalized one-time settlement (OTS) scheme from the borrowers. By March 2017, the bank said it expects to recover Rs 130 crore from the borrowers.