Nearly 200 LVB branches were loss-making, 100 unviable: Ex-Director

By Venkatachari Jagannathan Chennai, Nov 24 : The superseded board of the 94-year-old Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) was supposed to meet on November 18 and was close to taking a decision on the deal proposed by the Clix group of companies, said a member of the old board of directors.
Board member Shakti Sinha also said, for a bank of LVB’s size, its 563 branch network was huge and nearly 200 of them were loss-making and about 100 were unviable.
However, on November 17 evening, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) took series of decisions – superseding the LVB board, appointing an administrator, putting the bank under one month moratorium with a cap on withdrawals and also coming out with its decision to amalgamate the bank with DBS Bank India, subsidiary of DBS Bank, Singapore almost free of cost.
“The LVB board was supposed to meet on Wednesday/Nov 18. We were close to a decision on the Clix group proposal,” Sinha told IANS.
The Clix group comprises Clix Capital Services Private Ltd, Clix Finance India Private Ltd and Clix Housing Finance Private Ltd.
According to Sinha, the difference in negotiations had come down with Clix group.