Pedestrians walk past Yes Bank branch, at Dalhousie square in Kolkata, on Friday. (PTI)

KOLKATA: More than 40,000 customers of Yes Bank in Bengal were shocked to find their debit and ATM cards not functioning. Their cards have reportedly been blocked after RBI limited cash withdrawal to Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh for emergency. Assurance from the RBI could do little to allay fears among customers and even the 1,000 employees of the private bank.

Yes Bank has 20 branches in Kolkata and around 10 in districts.

Arindum Dutta, a senior executive at a finance company, has his salary account with Yes Bank. Besides, Dutta has his home loan with the bank. “I am distraught after the development. Yes Bank officers told me everything would be fine in a fortnight but until it actually happens, there’s no certainty,” he said, adding he hoped SBI would take over Yes Bank. He said he had been sensing something was amiss with the bank’s functioning, but whenever he asked the officers, they told him otherwise. “I applied for a cheque book almost a year ago but it never arrived. I applied a second time but to no avail,” he added.

Sankhadip Banerjee, a senior executive at another firm, tried to withdraw money from his account but could not do so in the past 24 hours. “We are facing a terrible problem. I have my salary account with the bank. Though the amount was credited to my account earlier, I had not withdrawn anything in the first few days of the month. But now that I need to withdraw money, I can’t. I do not know what to do,” he said. D Bagchi, another customer of Yes Bank, has a fixed deposit of a couple of lakhs with the private bank. “Let’s hope for the best,” he said, his fingers crossed.

Malay Biswas, a top executive at a finance company, had taken a loan from the bank to buy a car. “The bank debits EMI from my salary account every month. Now, my concern is what would happen from April, because without any fault of mine, I might default on the payment because of technicalities,” he said.

A senior employee of the bank is, however, optimistic that RBI and Centre would not let the bank fail. “The impact of a bank failure is huge on society. In the next one week, the situation would be clearer,” he said. The president of All India Bank Employees Association, Rajen Nagar, demanded immediate takeover of the bank by the Centre. “It should be nationalised for the interest of employees and customers,” he added.

