INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today barred Bandhan Bank from opening new branches, and also ordered freezing of the bank's CEO salary
over failure to stick to shareholding rules.
"RBI has communicated to us that since the Bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of
Non Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) to 40 percent as required under the licensing condition, general permission to open new
branches stands withdrawn and the Bank can open branches with prior approval of RBI and the remuneration of the MD CEO of the Bank stands
frozen at the existing level, till further notice," the bank said in a statement in BSE
"The Bank is taking necessary steps to comply with the licensing condition to bring down the shareholding of NOFHC in the Bank to 40
percent and shall continue to engage with RBI in this behalf," Bandhan Bank added in that statement.
As per the bank's website, it has 937
branches in parts of the country
The Bandhan, a MFI, was given conditional approval by the RBI for setting up universal bank in April 2014
The bank operational in 2015.
Headquartered in Kolkata, Bandhan, which started as a micro-finance company in 2001, received banking licence
by Reserve Bank of India in 2014.
Besides Bandhan, the RBI had also given the banking licence to IDFC.
Bank's shares closed at Rs 565
apiece on BSE, down 0.78 per cent
