Three days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) superseded the board of troubled private sector lender YES Bank and imposed a 30-day moratorium on it “in the absence of a credible revival plan” amid a “serious deterioration” in its financial health, the bank in a late night tweet informed its customers that they can now withdraw money from ATMs with their debit cards.

YES Bank tweeted, “You can now make withdrawals using your YES BANK Debit Card both at YES BANK and other bank ATMs. Thanks for your patience.”

You can now make withdrawals using your YES BANK Debit Card both at YES BANK and other bank ATMs. Thanks for your patience. @RBI @FinMinIndia

Advertisement

— YES BANK (@YESBANK) March 7, 2020

The move comes a day after RBI capped the withdrawals from the bank at Rs 50,000 with few exceptions till April 3.

During the moratorium, which came into effect from 6 pm on Thursday, YES Bank will not be allowed to grant or renew any loans, and “incur any liability”, except for payment towards employees’ salaries, rent, taxes and legal expenses, among others.

Yes Bank customers have been facing a tough time in accessing internet banking, using payment via UPI and withdrawing from ATMs after the RBI’s sudden announcement to curb withdrawals led to a scramble to take out money.

Current account holders have complained of severe problems to service their debts and pay salaries, especially when the spring festival of Holi is just two days away.

The founder of YES Bank, Rana Kapoor has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Sunday morning, after two days of questioning in an alleged bank scam.

Kapoor was taken to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) office in Mumbai for questioning on Saturday. Earlier, the probe agency conducted raids at his house at Samudra Mahal residential tower in Mumbai and filed a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against him.

The case against Kapoor is linked to the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) as the loans given by the bank to the company allegedly turned sour, investigators have said. A Rs 600-crore worth loan given by DHFL to an entity is also at the centre of the probe, they added.

The ED is probing the Yes Bank founder’s alleged role in giving loans to some firms and alleged kickbacks received in his wife’s accounts, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

Other alleged irregularities are also under the agency’s scanner, including one related to an alleged Employees Provident Fund fraud (EPF) in the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd.

The CBI recently took over investigation into the Rs 2,267-crore EPF fraud in Uttar Pradesh, where hard-earned savings of power sector employees were invested in DHFL.

As panic gripped the customers of the bank, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier on Friday assured the depositors that their money is “safe”.

Amidst concerns, Sitharaman on Friday had defended RBI’s decision to impose curbs on crisis-hit YES Bank stating that the Central bank has been continuously monitoring and scrutinizing the private sector lender since 2017.

On the present development, Sitharaman said the RBI had noticed that there were governance issues and weak compliance in the bank combined with a wrong asset classification and risky credit decisions.

“We had been keeping an eye on the bank since 2017,” Sitharaman had said at a press briefing on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India has announced a scheme of reconstruction for the cash-strapped private sector lender in a notification issued on Friday evening.

In a draft reconstruction plan for the crisis-ridden Yes Bank, the RBI said that SBI has expressed willingness to invest in the private lender and that it will bring in 49 per cent equity.

Banking behemoth State Bank of India (SBI) has said it has time till tomorrow to take a call on taking 49 per cent stake in Yes Bank.