Unity Small Finance Bank is planning to roll out initiatives, including for senior citizens, to bring relief to erstwhile Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank’s customers. While a majority of the PMC Bank customers, with deposits up to ₹5 lakh, are understood to have received deposit insurance payouts, there are still about 43,000 depositors, with balances over ₹5 lakh.
Those with over ₹5 lakh deposits now need relief as the scheme of amalgamation of PMC Bank with Unity SFB envisages access to their funds over an extended period of 10 years. Unity SFB, in a communication, has told its customers that a special scheme for senior citizens will be rolled out shortly to give them access to immediate liquidity.
Covid impact loans
Further, for customers who faced hardships during the two-year Covid-19 period and are in need of immediate funds, the Bank is working on hardship assistance/loans at competitive rates.
The Bank claimed that “...Post making the first tranche of payouts received from the Deposit Insurance Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), a large number of customers have opted to continue banking with us. From the about ₹3,800 crore paid out, we have been able to retain almost ₹2,000 crore. In fact, many customers who withdrew their funds, have come back and opened fresh FDs... Additionally, we are offering up to 7 per cent interest on savings accounts, one of the highest in the industry!”
‘Address depositors’ grievances faster’
Chander Purswani, President, PMC Depositors’ Forum, said Unity SFB should pay interest to those PMC Bank depositors who did not receive the deposit insurance amount in time. He alleged that some of the PMC Bank depositors did not receive Unity SFB chequebooks in time and some of the cheques had bounced. “First impression is the last impression. They (Unity SFB) have to act fast on PMC Bank depositors’ grievances,” Purswani said.
The amalgamation of the scam-hit PMC Bank with Unity SFB came into force with effect January 25, 2022. Unity SFB is a 51:49 joint venture Centrum Financial Service Ltd (Centrum Group) and Resilient Innovations Pvt Ltd (BharatPe).
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