Cooperative Commissioner Madhukar Chowdhury on Friday said talks to finalise merger of the beleagured Rupee Cooperative Bank with Saraswat Bank are in the final phase. Addressing the media in the city,Chowdhury said steps would be taken to protect the investments of citizens. In February this year,Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed strict regulations on Rupee Cooperative Bank taking into consideration non-performing assets (NPA) and bad loans worth Rs 1,500 crore. The RBI had dismissed the board of director and appointed joint directors Sanjaykumar Bhosale and Vidyadhar Anaskar as administrators. Speaking about the merger,Chowdhury said the RBI had asked the co-operative department to finalise the merger of the bank in a year. The merger process will be carried out in such a way that no depositor loses money. During talks with Saraswat Bank,we expressed various formulas to work out the plan, he said. Chowdhury said one of the formulas was to pool together realisable assets of Rupee Bank at Rs 918 crore along with one-time contribution of Rs 125 crore from Saraswat Bank . This formula will ensure all customers get 56 per cent of their deposits. For remaining money,we have proposed to open an account where money recovered from bad loans will be deposited. This will be given back to depositors subsequently, he said. He said a locking period of three years would be proposed for depositors having more than 1 lakh in their accounts. After three years,they would be given money back with interest.
