RBI slaps Rs 1 crore fine on Bandhan Bank for failing to comply with promoter holding norms

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Bandhan Bank for not bringing down the promoter shareholding to 40 per cent. Bandhan MFI had obtained in-principle universal banking licence from the central bank in 2014 and started full-fledged operations as a bank from August 2015.

The RBI imposed the penalty on account of failure to pare the shareholding of Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd to 40 per cent of its paid-up voting capital within three years from commencement of the business of the bank, the lender said in a BSE filing.

Bandhan Bank came out with an IPO and got listed in March 2018.

According to an RBI statement, as the lender failed to comply with the licensing guidelines, “a notice was issued to the bank advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed for non-compliance with the said licensing guidelines”.

After considering the reply received from the bank and submissions made by the bank during the personal hearing, the RBI came to the conclusion that the bank had failed to comply with the licensing guidelines and decided to impose monetary penalty, the statement added.

The bank had recently merged with Gruh Finance, which brought down the shareholding of the promoter from 82.26 per cent to 60.96 per cent. The lender had earlier said it was making efforts to further reduce the shareholding to 40 per cent.