Daily
Excelsior: New Delhi: Tuesday, June 04, 2019.
Over
6,800 cases of bank fraud involving an unprecedented Rs 71,500 crore have been
reported in 2018-19, the Reserve Bank of India has said.
A
total of 5,916 such cases were reported by banks in 2017-18 involving Rs
41,167.03 crore, it said.
As
many as 6,801 cases of fraud were reported by scheduled commercial banks and
select financial institutions involving an amount of Rs 71,542.93 crore in the
last fiscal (increase of over 73 per cent in the fraud amount), the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) said in reply to an RTI query filed by this PTI journalist.
In
the last 11 fiscal years, a total of 53,334 cases of fraud were reported by
banks involving a massive amount of Rs 2.05 lakh crore, the central bank’s data
said.
During
2008-09, a total of 4,372 cases were reported involving an amount of Rs
1,860.09 crore. In 2009-10, Rs
1,998.94 crore worth fraud was reported in 4,669 cases.
A
total of 4,534 and 4,093 such cases were reported in 2010-11 and 2011-12
involving Rs 3,815.76 crore and Rs
4,501.15 crore, respectively.
In
the 2012-13 fiscal, 4,235 fraud cases involving Rs
8,590.86 crore were reported by banks as against 4,306 cases (involving Rs
10,170.81 crore) in 2013-14 and 4,639 cases (involving Rs 19,455.07 crore) in
2014-15, the RBI said.
As
many as 4,693 and 5,076 cases of fraud were reported in 2015-16 and 2016-17
involving Rs 18,698.82 crore and Rs 23,933.85 crore, respectively, it said.
“Cases
of fraud reported to RBI are required to be filed by banks as criminal
complaints with law enforcement agencies. The information in respect of action
being taken or already taken is not available readily,” the central bank said.
The
data assumes significance as banks are grappling with high-profile fraud cases
involving absconding billionaire Nirav Modi and liquor baron Vijay Mallya among
others.
The
large-scale fraud had prompted anti-corruption watchdog Central Vigilance
Commission (CVC) to do an analysis and it came out with a report on top 100
frauds.
The
analysis focussed on the modus operandi, amount involved, type of lending
(consortium or individual), anomalies observed, loopholes that facilitated
perpetration of the fraud concerned and the systemic improvement required to
plug the gaps in the system and procedures.
The
frauds were classified and analysed for 13 sectors, including gem and
jewellery, manufacturing and industry, agriculture, media, aviation, service
and project, discounting of cheques, trading, information technology, export
business, fixed deposits, demand loan and letter of comfort.
The
measures suggested by the CVC included strengthening standard operating
procedures (SOPs) and the monitoring system, among others.
The
CBI in 2018 booked top officials of two public sector banks, a former CMD of
IDBI Bank, former Aircel promoter C
Sivasankaran, his son and companies controlled by him in connection with a Rs
600-crore loan fraud in the IDBI.
The
investigative agency named 15 bank officials who worked at senior levels at the
IDBI in 2010 and 2014 when loans were sanctioned to companies controlled by
Sivasankaran, in its FIR registered on a complaint from the CVC.
Managing
Director and CEO of Indian Bank, Kishor Kharat (who was then MD and CEO of IDBI
Bank) and his counterpart in Syndicate Bank, Melwyn Rego (then deputy managing
director in IDBI Bank) along with then Chairman-cum-Managing Director of IDBI
Bank M S Raghavan, have been named in the latest FIR filed by the CBI.
Central
agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement
Directorate (ED) are also probing big-ticket bank fraud cases.
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