MARGAO
The stage is finally set for the mega exercise of liquidating the Margao-headquartered Madgaum Urban Cooperative Bank (MUCB) to return the hard earned money of thousands of bank depositors.
Exactly a month after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cancelled the banking license of the MUCB as per an order dated July 28 last, the government-appointed liquidator is gearing up to invite claims of thousands of depositors spread across the State for the return of their deposits.
MUCB sources informed that the process of inviting the claims will kick-start from next week. A public notice to this, inviting claims for withdrawal of the deposits, will be published in the media, setting in motion the process for the submission of claims and return of deposits.
Officials in the know informed that the claim forms are expected to be kept at the various bank branches to facilitate the depositors to lay claim on their deposits by following a laid-down procedure.
Sources informed that as per the set guidelines on liquidation, the depositors will get a time-frame to submit their claims on their deposits.
“After the liquidator receives the claims from the depositors, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) is expected to conduct an audit of the bank, to verify the amount of liquid cash and assets available with the bank”, an official informed.
The official added: “Liquidation of the Bank will be carried out as per the set guidelines in force and as per the DICGC Act, 1961. The entire process will kick-start from next week after the public notice is published in the newspapers”.
As per the data submitted by MUCB to the RBI, about 99 per cent of the depositors will receive full amounts of their deposits from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation. On liquidation, every depositor would be entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount of his/her deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Rs five lakh from the DICGC.
MUCB has around 56,636 depositors, with the total deposits amounting to Rs 189.81 crore as on July 29 last. On the other hand, MUCB’s liquid cash stand around Rs 122.32 crore.
Of the total depositors, around 55,999 depositors have deposits not exceeding the Rs five lakh figure. All these depositors are all entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount on deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Rs five lakh from DICGC.
The balance 636 depositors, with more than Rs five lakh deposits, have total deposits, pegged around Rs 59.12 crore. Since these 636 depositors are also covered under the insurance, they are entitled to receive Rs five lakh each, which works out total Rs 31.80 crore.
The liquidator will have to arrange the balance funds amounting to Rs 27.32 crore to settle the claim of all the depositors, with bank officials saying the liquidator will have to fall back on the disposal of assets and recovery of loans.
