Team Herald
Panjim: As the liquidation process of Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank (MUCB) is ongoing and the bank has no source of income, it has decided to close down 16 of its 25 branches which were on rent from January 1, 2021.
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However, the nine other branches which are in MUCB own property and the head office will continue to function to address the grievances of its customers.
Speaking to Herald, the General Manager of the MUCB, Shailendra Sawant, said, “With no income, there is a huge expenditure on these branches which were on rent, it was too much. We cannot waste our customers’ money, which we have to return, on rent. We are doing this on behalf of the liquidator. However, we have also received the majority of the claims from our customers and they should not worry as they will get their money back. We have informed the landlords and we are also allowing the purchase of dead stock, there is a lot of furniture, lying in these branches. We cannot close our nine branches unless all our depositors’ money is paid back to them and that is the norm.”
He further added that all the customers of those 16 branches can either contact the head office or the other nine branches which are well spread out across the state. The branches which will continue to operate will be in Head office Mapusa, Panjim, Raes Magos in Verem, Vasco, Ponda, Quepem, Sanclim, etc.
When asked about the staff of the bank branches which are being closed down, Shailendra said, “We have 179 staff at the moment and with the consultation with the liquidator as he is taking all the decision and we may have to lay off about 100 people in different stages in next two months.” The liquidator happens to be the former finance secretary of Goa, Daulat Hawaldar.
“MUCB has liquid and other assets and deposits are worth more than Rs 200 crore. We have a recovery outstanding at about Rs 50 crore along with our own assets, which has been valued by the conservative government valuator to about Rs 57 crore. This could be surely more in the market. Along with that we have our non-banking assets which amount to Rs 13-15 crore,” Shailendra.
The MUCB had gone into liquidation after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cancelled its banking license in April this year. When it shut down, the bank had 1.19 lakh shareholders and 2.5 lakh depositors and they had to pay about Rs 355 crore to their customers.
All bank’s data has been handed over to the Depositors Insurance Credit Guarantee (DICG) which is RBI’s sister concern.
“We have received the claims which are KYC and non-KYC compliant. The DICG is now doing the thorough scrutiny of this data which guarantees the depositor up to Rs 5 lakhs but that does not mean that those who have deposits above Rs 5 lakhs will not get their money. They too will get their full claim at a second stage. Once it is completed, then we will start the payment of all the claims,” he added.
