RBI officials say they want to merge PMC Bank with bigger bank, say protesters
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, October 29
The Reserve Bank of India is looking to merge the troubled PMC Bank with a bigger bank, depositors said on Friday, as the bank’s uncertain future continues to create panic among its customers.
Several hundred depositors from PMC Bank held a big protest outside RBI headquarters on Tuesday demanding that they be allowed to withdraw their savings from the bank. A delegation of depositors then had a meeting with RBI officials. Members of the delegation later told the protestors that the central bank needed four weeks’ time to push for the merger of PMC Bank with a bigger bank.
“RBI officials have told us that all efforts are being made to return our money to us,” a protestor told reporters near the central bank headquarters.
Depositors were told that no big bank has so far come to rescue PMC Bank and the RBI was still looking for possible suitors.
Officials of the central bank had promised depositors that some solution would be found before the end of this month. However, with nothing concrete emerging so far, protesting depositors raised slogans
outside RBI quarters on Tuesday. Many of them said they need to access their funds to meet their personal and business expenses. Several of them warned that they would resort to violence should they not get their money back.
The protest nearly turned violent when BJP leader Kirit Somaiya met the depositors and promised to intercede on their behalf with the Maharashtra Government. Somaiya, a former Member of Parliament, was heckled. He had to leave after some protesters threatened to beat him up.
