RBI delicenses Mahila Bank

After five years of its fate hanging in balance, RBI has scrapped the licence for Nagpur Mahila Nagari Sahakari Bank. It means that the institution will not be allowed to undertake banking business any more and an official liquidator will be appointed soon to dispose of its assets.
However, there is a still a ray of hope for it to continue to exist, in case a bigger urban cooperative bank takes it over. An all eves bank, it was founded by former Lt Governor of Puducherry Rajani Ray in 1975.
This beleaguered cooperative has been under RBI restrictions since 2004, after the board of directors was superseded for alleged mismanagement of affairs leading to losses.
The RBI had issued orders restricting withdrawals from each account to Rs 1,000. This had left the 61,000 depositors of the bank in the lurch.
Most of them were senior citizens who had parked their life time savings. Two other cooperative banks of the city, Samata Sahakari Bank and Parmatma Ek Sevak Bank, are also under RBI restrictions.
However, sources add that the move may actually be advantageous for a majority of depositors as 59,000 of them have funds up to Rs 1lakh.