The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday approved the appointment of Vinod Rai, former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India as Independent Chairman of Unity Small Finance Bank Limited (Unity Bank).

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A former IAS officer, Rai has rich experience in multiple capacities with the Ministry of Finance, Commerce, Defense as well as with Federal and State Governments and Private Institutions. He was also Chairman of the Banks Board Bureau, the body which advises the Government on top-level appointments at public sector banks and ways to address bad loans.

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A highly respected industry veteran, Rai will add significant value to the Board of Unity Bank. Moreover, his vast experience as a Board Member in several PSU and Private Banks will help in building a strong foundation and shaping the long term strategy at Unity Bank, for customer delight through a seamless digital banking experience, the statement said.

Apart from Rai, RBI veteran Sandip Ghose, Former CMD of Syndicate Bank and Deputy MD of SIDBI Basant Seth and Former Chairman of RBL Bank Subhash Kutte have recently joined Unity Bank’s board. The Centrum Group's Inderjit Camotra is the interim chief executive of the bank.

According to the licence agreement, Unity Small Finance Bank, which is a joint venture between Centrum group and BharatPe, will have to take over the crippled co-operative bank PMC Bank as and when the finance ministry clears the merger scheme. Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank was hit by a Rs 7,000 crore loan scam and has been under the RBI administrator since September 2019.

Unity is the 12th small finance bank and it opened its first branch in Mumbai on November 1, 2021 with over Rs 1,100 crore of equity capital, over 2 lakh customers and an asset base of over Rs 2,400 crore which comes from the existing MSME and MFI credit business of the Centrum Group, Jaspal Bindra, group executive chairman and also the non-executive chairman of Unity SFB, had said.

Unity began operations in a record time as it got the final licence only on October 12, 2021 from the Reserve Bank, after getting in-principal approval in June. Unity Small Finance Bank is 51 per cent owned by Centrum Capital, the listed entity of the Centrum Group, and 49 per cent by Resilient Innovations, the arm BharatPe set up for its banking foray.

(With inputs from PTI)

(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)

First Published:Jan 20, 2022 6:31 PM IST