The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on January 23 barred SBM Bank (India) Ltd
to stop all transactions under Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) till further orders.
"The Reserve Bank of India has today, in exercise of its powers under sections 35A and 36(1)(a) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, directed SBM Bank (India) Ltd to stop, with immediate effect, all transactions under Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) till further orders," the RBI said in a release.
This action is based on certain material supervisory concerns observed in the bank, the RBI said. The central bank didn't specify what exactly are the supervisory concerns surrounding the bank.
SBM Bank is a subsidiary of Mauritius-based SBM Holdings. SBM Group is a financial services group offering products and services including deposits, lending, trade finance and cards among others, according to its website.
SBM Bank (India) commenced operations on December 1 2018 after receiving a banking license from the RBI through the Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS) route.
The lender has a network of 11 branches spread across the country.
SBM bank operates across corporate, retail and treasury catering to clients in retail, MSMEs, NRIs as well as large corporates and institutions, the bank said.
In October, 2019, the RBI had imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 3 crore on SBM Bank (India) Ltd. for non-compliance by SBM Bank (Mauritius) Ltd. with certain provisions of directions issued by RBI.
At that point, the RBI had conducted a scrutiny to examine the implementation of SWIFT related operational controls in SBM Bank (Mauritius) Ltd. at its Indian operations.
It was observed that the bank had failed to comply with certain provisions of the aforesaid directions. Prior to that, in December, 2018, the RBI had sanctioned the scheme of amalgamation of SBM Bank (Mauritius) Limited, India with SBM Bank (India).
The entity was granted licence by the Reserve Bank to carry on the business of banking in India through WOS mode. The Scheme came into force with effect from December 1, 2018.
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