RBI imposes Rs 1-cr penalty on Bandhan Bank

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 percent. Bandhan MFI had obtained an in-principle universal banking license from the central bank in 2014 and started full-fledged operations as a bank from August 2015.

RBI imposed the penalty on account of failure to pare the shareholding of Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd to 40 percent of its paid-up voting capital, within three years from the 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.

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