Small finance bank to take over PMC Bank: RBI to HC

A bench of Justices D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh granted time to the RBI to file an affidavit on the development in the matter and listed the case for further hearing on August 20. 

Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, representing the RBI, submitted it has given in-principle approval to Centrum Finance Services to set up a small finance bank which will take over Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank very soon as the process in near completion. This will ease the trouble faced by the bank’s customers who are unable to withdraw their money. 

The court was hearing an application by consumer rights activist Bejon Kumar Misra seeking directions to the RBI to consider other needs of PMC Bank depositors such as education, not just serious medical emergencies as being done at present. It was filed in Misra’s main PIL seeking directions to the RBI to ease the moratorium on withdrawals from the PMC Bank in the pandemic.