Will speak with RBI gov about distress faced by PMC depositors: FM

Pacifying angry depositors of scam-hit Punjab Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank in Mumbai, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said she would speak with Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das about the distress faced by them. She also said a panel would be set up for recommending legislative changes to ensure better governance at co-operative banks in the country.

Sitharaman faced irate depositors who gathered outside the BJP office in south Mumbai ahead of her press conference. When she arrived, they shouted slogans, demanding that their money be returned to them. “I heard them about their problems and explained to them that multi-state cooperative banks are regulated by the RBI,” she later said at a

FM said the govt intends to take necessary legislative steps to prevent PMC-like events in the future

press conference, adding that the government’s role is limited.

She said a committee of secretaries of economic affairs & financial services, rural affairs and urban development ministries and a deputy governor of the RBI would be formed

soon. “Through this committee, the government intends to understand and take necessary legislative steps to prevent such things from happening in the future, empower the regulator better,” she said, adding that if necessary, the government will amend the laws governing cooperative banks in the winter session of Parliament. Asked when the depositors can get their money back, she said it was a process-driven exercise between the RBI and the bank administrator appointed by the RBI. “But, I can emphasise that it has do be done quickly.”