Kerala based Catholic Syrian Bank has been alerted by RBI against new investors who bought 14% stake in the bank from a Bangkok based NRI businessman Sura Chansrichawla.

The apex bank warned CSB that these new investors were not acting in tune with the norms. RBI aims to put it to the bank's knowledge that a big portion of its shares are coming into the market following the stake buy by these investors. RBI fears that through this step, the control of the bank should not change hands without the approval of the Central Bank.

SEBI's guidelines for takeovers says that a group of people can act in concert for the purpose of acquiring majority of shares of a company but RBI does not approve of this in case of banks.

Mr. Chawla who had around a 24.5% stake in the bank had to cut down his stake to less than 10% by March end. He sold over 14.5% stake to around 15 overseas investors - non-resident Indians from Singapore and Hong Kong.

But as the shares of the bank are not listed in any of the exchanges, so the transfer needs to get approvals from the Board of the bank in a board meeting.

It has been revealed by sources that the group has valued the bank at Rs. 900 crore which is nearly double the amount Federal Bank had offered to the bank last year.