Times of India: Nagpur: Monday, August 21, 2017.
Over 5,000
bank frauds worth a whopping Rs29,933 crore came to fore in last fiscal (from
April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017) in India, an RTI query has revealed.
The reply by
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also mentioned that about 480 employees were
suspended after their role was established in these frauds, which were all over
Rs1 lakh.
RBI refused
to specify the number of old notes of Rs500 and Rs1,000 denomination collected
during demonetization period from November 9 to December 31, stating that
"the figures are still under reconciliation".
It also
failed to inform about number and amount of Rs500 and Rs1,000 currency
deposited with district cooperative banks in Maharashtra. The top bank didn't
inform about the number of forged notes collected during demonetization period,
citing the reason that "notes are being processed".
The query by
senior RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar disclosed that about 25 scheduled commercial
banks (SCBs) and 95 urban cooperative banks (UCBs) were into losses ranging
from few lakh rupees to crores in last financial year. Among the commercial
banks which recorded most losses, the Indian Overseas Bank leads the chart with
net loss of Rs2,770 crores followed by Central Bank of India at Rs1,847 crores
and IDBI Bank at Rs1,958 crore. The Bank of Nova Scotia and Doha Bank are at
bottom with net losses of Rs6 crore and Rs1 crore respectively. Collectively,
these 25 commercial banks account for losses of Rs17,357 crore.
Interestingly,
the list also figures five associates of Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB) which would
be merged with the banking behemoth State Bank of India (SBI). They
included—State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM),
State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), and State Bank of
Hyderabad (SBH). All these five associates are facing massive losses led by SBT
with Rs1,398 crore.
On other
hand, about 95 of total 1,574 cooperative banks, collectively accounts for
losses to the tune of 30,27,713 crore.
Kolarkar also
asked about penalties imposed on the banks for not complying with Know Your
Customer (KYC) norms, but the RBI's central public information officer (CPIO) P
Vijaya Kumar replied that information would be available on the bank's website.
It was mentioned there that the RBI found huge cash withdrawals from certain
accounts took place.