Fighting PMC ghost: Sahakar Bharati holds meeting of UCBs in Mumbai

Sahakar Bharati organized a meeting of urban cooperative banks in Mumbai, in which several co-operators connected to the UCB sector from various states participated. The unsaid agenda of the meeting was fighting off despondency post the PMC Bank episode.

In a mail sent to Indian Cooperative, Uday Joshi, national General Secretary of Sahakar Bharati who is also on the board of apex body NAFCUB wrote “154 delegates from five states represented 72 UCBs in a highly successful meeting”.

Joshi himself welcomed the delegates and narrated at length how the PMC episode has hit the Coop sector in general & UCB Sector in particular. “But this is the time to maintain cool and remain collected”, Joshi exhorted.

In his speech Joshi said post PMC the credibility of UCBs has eroded and a debate has begun on subjects such as accountability of Board, Auditors, Regulators, Coop Dept. Imposition of Sec 35 creates panic among depositors as it signals loss of their monies at the hands of an ill-managed bank.

Others who spoke on the occasion included Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta, who briefly did the post mortem of the PMC episode and warned of the possible pitfalls in the UCB’s management. Mehta who had met the Union Finance Minister along with Satish Marathe and others the other day, also assured the assembled co-operators that all is not lost yet.

Satish Marathe concluded the session stressing on the need of amendments in the BR Act as applicable to UCBs. He felt full regulatory control of UCBs to RBI may help us check such a situation as seen in the case like PMC Bank. Marathe was categorical that what happened in PMC Bank was basically a fraud and not the failure of the UCB Banking system.

Marathe, however exhorted the delegates to do everything possible to safeguard the depositors-both individual and institutional, if the UCB movement has to go further.

The meeting also stressed upon the fact that deposits in UCBs are primarily mobilized due to the factor of trust and image of the Board. It asked participants not to panic and informed them that Sahakar Bharati has submitted the representation to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the issue.

CA Sh Jayesh Shaha, CA Ajay Bramhecha, Milind Arolker, Ad Chandak, Sh Vilas Desai, Vivek Jugade, CA Santosh Kelkar also expressed their views as to how to tackle the PMC like situation in the future.

Sanjay Birla extended a vote of thanks to delegates who responded to Sahakar Bharati’s invitation and came to the meeting at a short notice.