Centrum-Bharatpe JV to pump Rs 1,800 cr into PMC on merger

The joint venture floated by Centrum Group and digital payments startup Bharatpe for launching a small finance bank will infuse Rs 1,800 crore capital into troubled Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) on its merger with the proposed bank, a top Centrum official has said.

Last Friday, the Reserve Bank gave an in-principle approval to Centrum Financial Services, a step-down arm of the diversified financial services group, to set up a small finance bank (SFB) provided it took over the troubled PMC Bank.

The in-principle approval has been in specific pursuance to Centrum Financial Services' offer on February 1, 2021 in response to the expression of interest notification dated November 3, 2020 published by the PMC Bank, the RBI said.

This paves the way for ending nearly two anxious years for the PMC depositors whose over Rs 10,723 crore are still stuck in the crippled cooperative bank that has been under RBI administrator since September 2019.

To launch SFB, the Centrum Group ..