Recently, India’s central bank, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) levied a penalty of ₹10 lakh on Muthoot Finance Ltd in Ernakula and ₹5 lakh on Manappuram Finance Ltd located in Thrissur, for violation of norms and non-compliance with its directions in regard to the ownership of gold jewellery.
In a statement, the RBI said that it has penalized Muthoot Finance Limited for not following the guidelines of maintaining the loan to value ratio in gold loans and asking the copy of PAN card from the borrower to issue gold loans amounting to over Rs 5 Lakh.
In regard to the financial position of Muthoot Finance as on March 31, 2018, and March 31, 2019, the central bank revealed that statutory inspection highlighted its non-compliance of RBI directions. Additionally, a notice was also issued to the company for justifying as to why penalty should not be imposed as it failed to comply with the policies issued by RBI.
After contemplating the company’s reply to the legal notice, oral submissions were put forward during the personal hearings and the central bank concluded that the previously mentioned charges of non-compliance with RBI directions were substantiated and monetary penalty had to be imposed.
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Whereas, the RBI stated that the statutory inspection of Manappuram Finance with respect to its financial position as on March 31, 2019, revealed the violation of RBI directions for verifying the ownership of gold jewellery.
In an official statement, the central bank said, “This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the company with its customers.”
