Justified worries: Sitharaman speaks to RBI chief on PMC bank

New Delhi, Oct 12: Assuring account holders of troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank of support, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that she has spoken to the RBI governor, who assured that customers' concerns will be taken on top priority.

The bank was put under "directions" by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last month due to weak financial health, wherein the central bank has capped the deposit withdrawals at Rs 25,000.

"Spoken to governor @RBI on the #PMCBank matter. He assured me that clients & their concerns will be kept on top priority. I wish to reiterate that @FinMinIndia will ensure that customers concerns are comprehensively addressed. We understand the justified worries of the customers," she said in a tweet.

PMC is in bad health allegedly due to its exposure to near-bankrupt realty player HDIL, to which it has loaned over 70 percent of its Rs 9,000 crore in advances.

Earlier this week during a media interaction, she had said, ''Finance Ministry may have nothing to do with it (PMC bank matter) directly because RBI is the regulator. But from my side, I've asked the secretaries of my ministry to work with Rural Development Ministry and the Urban Development Ministry to study in detail as to what is happening".

Secretaries from the department of financial services and economic affairs will be meeting a deputy governor of RBI soon to look into the "shortcomings" of the functioning of multi-state cooperative banks and see if any amendments can be made to the laws, she had said.

"They will discuss legislative steps needed to prevent such incidents from happening and empower the regulator better," she had said.

The government will bring in a legislation to this effect in the winter session of Parliament, she had said.