It may come as a shocker for depositors from far flung areas of the State but it is true. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made it clear that not a single non-banking financial company (NBFC) has been given license to collect deposits from the customers by the regulator bank under its Jharkhand-Bihar circle. The revelation means all such companies in operation in the State are either unauthorised or may be registered elsewhere.
“None of the NBFCs operating here are registered with us and authorised to accept deposits from investors. There are just 16 companies who have non-depository permission and they can only issue bonds or take money from market,” said Manoj Kumar Verma, Regional Director of RBI on Thursday.
Instances of people getting cheated in the hands of illegal financing companies have been reoccurring in various parts of Jharkhand and elsewhere, especially in rural areas.
lack of awareness among people play a major role into this. Verma made it clear that the RBI has placed a list of authorised NBFCs on its official website and people can also contact it to verify the credentials of any firm luring them.
“One should also be suspicious to toll claims often made. We do not allow any non-banking company to take deposits for below one year and above five years period. Also none can promise interest more than 12.5 per cent. If anyone is doing this it is the duty of the depositors to contact us before investing,” added Verma. Saurav Sinha, General Manager and officer-in-charge of RBI, Ranchi was also present.
Meanwhile the regional office of RBI called 15th meeting of State level Coordination Committee on NBFC on Thursday which urged the State Government to frame rules under the Jharkhand Protection of Interest of Depositors’ Act which has already been passed.
“The Act makes the provision for competent authority i.e. registrar to accept applications from the companies before operating and a court to hear cases. We need to expedite the process in order to salvage the interest of common investors of NBFCs. We need to work in coordinated
manner here to cover the grey areas existing,” said the Regional Director.
Also the Government and local police officials would be trained to deal with complaints of such frauds.
Besides RBI, other stakeholders such as SEBI, IRDA, National Housing Bank and Registrar of Companies also attended the meeting which decided to hold the review in every three months.
The RBI is also in the process of identifying vanishing companies who have not filed their mandatory returns to it.
This year seven such companies have been indentified and information about them have been passed to the State Government.
The Government on its part has also sought details about their registration from all the NBFCs functional in Jharkhand.