WHY PUNISH US?
Customers of the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank on Tuesday took to twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the RBI curbs.
"Every time a bank fraud happens people who are not involved in it – that is, the common people -- get punished for trusting the bank and the government. This is punishment for us," posted one user. "What kind of a joke is this when you allow depositors to withdraw Rs 1000 from the bank after freezing its assets? Might as well seal the treasury," wrote another user. "I have all my savings in that bank and they say I cannot withdraw my money. What do I do? The bank also says that it can't help," customer Avinash Sharma tweeted. Lamented Deepak Shenoy: As a deposit holder, you have a right to go to court against the bank - and you should. However, the situation will take years to resolve. Unless the RBI acts fast, confidence in coop banks is going to wane.
The RBI has not acted fast in the past.
Another user pointed out: This is really RBI's fault. They need to ensure speedy resolution (within three months) or refund as much as possible. This particular bank has nearly 25% SLR = enough to return 25% of the money back. And it might also have insurance. RBI needs to get this sorted now. At this point, I would suggest that please do not keep your money in cooperative banks. RBI’s total lack of
transparency and slow resolution means there is little hope of getting your money back, if things go wrong.
The fear is that this will trigger a run on cooperative banks. In fact, my suggestion to exit will also play a part. But unless RBI acts to soothe nerves, this will be the default mode of action, he added. Meghnad wondered if the RBI was going to take such an action, should it not have informed the depositors first. ‘‘Let them withdraw their money. Let the bank collapse. It'll happen 6 months later anyway... Oh, wait. Elections. Right. Prasanna Bidkar was dripping with sarcasm: I wonder when people would understand that the definition of co-operative banks is ‘Bank of Politicians, by politicians and for Politicians.’