Reserve Bank of India Imposes Rs 23 Lakh Fine on 3 Cooperative Banks

RBI on Monday imposed penalties of Rs 23 lakh on three cooperative banks, including Mogaveera Co-operative Bank Limited, Mumbai, for contravention of various norms. A penalty of Rs 12 lakh has been imposed on Mogaveera Co-operative Bank Limited, Rs 10 lakh on Indapur Urban Cooperative Bank, and Rs 1 lakh on The Baramati Sahakari Bank Limited, Baramati.

Regarding Mogaveera Co-operative Bank, the RBI said the inspection report of the bank, based on its financial position as on March 31, 2019, revealed that it had not fully transferred unclaimed deposits to Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund and had not conducted annual review of inoperative accounts. Inspection also found the lender had no system of periodic review of risk categorisation of accounts.

On Indapur Urban Cooperative Bank, the RBI said inspection report of the bank, based on its financial position as on March 31, 2019, revealed that it had not adhered to the aggregate ceiling on unsecured advances, and did not have process for periodical review of risk categorisation of accounts. It also did not have a robust system in place to generate alerts whenever transactions were inconsistent with the risk categorisation of customers. Inspection report of Baramati Sahakari Bank revealed the bank had exceeded prudential inter-bank (single bank) exposure limit.

In each case, the RBI added that penalty was imposed due to deficiencies in regulatory compliance, and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.