Meghalaya Assures Customers As Yes Bank Crisis Hits Two Rural Banks

The ripples of the Yes Bank crisis are being felt even in Meghalaya's rural banking sector. Two rural banks of the north-eastern state - Meghalaya Co-operative Apex Bank and Meghalaya Rural Bank - which use technical support from Yes Bank for some of their services have reported disruptions. This has created panic among depositors and customers at these rural banks.

On Saturday evening, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma chaired a review meeting and later briefed the media where he assured that the deposits and the financial health of both the rural banks are absolutely fine and that Yes Bank was only engaged in tech support. The crisis-hit lender did not have any transactions with these two banks, he said.

Mr Sangma added that they are looking for alternatives. For past two days ATMs, mobile banking and even the backbone network for both these two banks have crashed following the Yes Bank crisis, offical sources said.

The state government in a press release have added that there is no financial effect on either of the banks because of Yes Bank being put on moratorium and the outage was a technical issue.

"Both the banks are fully committed to and are in sound financial position to honour all commitments to their customers and request their customers to bear with them during this time of disruption of service. Both the banks have been conferred scheduled status by the Reserve Bank of India, a clear indication of their financial soundness and strength," the government release further added.

The meeting was called by the Chief Minister after it came to the government's notice that some messages are circulating through social media urging people to withdraw their funds from both the Meghalaya Co-operative Apex Bank Ltd and the Meghalaya Rural Bank. A police complaint has already been filed with Sadar Police Station, Shillong against those behind the message.