Anyonya: RBI liquidator begins moves to deal the final blow to ailing bank

“Now the RBI-appointed liquidator has taken over the functioning of the bank and the process to gather the information about the account holders and depositors has started. The bank employees are still coming to the office because without their help it is not possible for RBI to gather the information required for liquidation,” said ACBL Chairman Dilip Kelkar.

RBI had cancelled the licence of the bank — the first cooperative bank in Asia — on September 3,as the lender became bankrupt and all efforts to revive failed.

The bank was asked not to continue any banking related transactions until further directions. It was after the ACBL failed to meet the RBI’s deadline to come up with concrete steps to recover the money from the defaulters by August the license was canceled.

The statutory inspections conducted by the RBI since 2005 till March 2009 with reference to the lender’s financial position showed severe liquidity problem and deficiencies in the functioning of the bank,the RBI had said.

ACBL was placed under financial restrictions by RBI under section 35 (A) of the Banking Regulation Act,1949 in September 2007 for not being able to reduce its NPA. Efforts were made by the management to revive the bank including attempts to merge it with other cooperative banks,including Saraswat Cooperative Bank Limited (SCBL) in 2008. The deal with SCBL had almost gone through before it hit a roadblock.

The bank has 29,000 members and over one lakh depositors till date.

The bank’s non performing asset was 31.71 crore in 2007. Now the bank’s NPA amounts to 22.4 crore and bank officials are yet to recover Rs 24 crore.

“Priority would be given to depositors who have deposits less than Rs 1 lakh. The rest will have to depend on the situation as it arises,” said Kelkar.