Mumbai: Three private banks, caught in the Cobrapost sting operation, have been let off the hook with paltry penalties. The Reserve Bank of India on Monday imposed penalties on Axis, ICICI and HDFC banks after a sting operation by online magazine Cobrapost exposed many loopholes.
RBI imposed a penalty of Rs 5 crore on Axis Bank, Rs 4.5 crore on HDFC Bank and Rs 1 crore on ICICI Bank. The penalty follows scrutiny carried out by RBI of books of accounts, internal control, compliance systems and processes of these three banks at their corporate offices and some branches during March/April 2013.
The scrutiny was conducted to investigate into the allegations of contravention of Know Your Customer (KYC) anti-money laundering guidelines against them following expose by online portal Cobrapost.
Although the investigation did not reveal any prima facie evidence of money laundering, RBI said, "any conclusive inference in this regard can be drawn only by an end-to-end investigation of the transactions by tax and enforcement agencies." RBI further said that a similar scrutiny was being conducted at corporate offices of 36 other banks and "the process of follow up action in respect of these banks is at different stages of its completion."...
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06:41 PM, Jun 10, 2013
Mumbai: India's banking system is not as strong as expected. An RBI report shows that over 30 banks have failed to follow or enforce various prescribed rules and guidelines. CNBC-TV18 has accessed the report of the audits instigated by the RBI after the Cobrapost expose, which shows that 30 banks, whether from the Public Sector, the private sector, or Foreign, have not followed the prescribed rules. It doesn't matter whether...
11:54 AM, May 30, 2013
New Delhi: The Department of Telecom is likely to slap a demand notice of Rs 650 crore on Bharti Airtel for allegedly violating licence norms on subscriber local dialing (SLD) services. "DoT this week has approved imposition of demand notices of financial penalty of Rs 500 crore and Rs 100 crore respectively on Bharti Airtel for violating licence conditions by provisioning of SLD services," sources said. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal...
09:35 PM, May 29, 2013
New Delhi: Income Tax department has issued notices to three top private lenders in the country - ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank - in connection with alleged money laundering charges levelled by online portal Cobrapost. The department has asked these banks to produce documents for verification as part of its tax evasion probe. The notices have been issued under section 131 of the I-T Act (power regarding discovery,...
09:59 PM, May 28, 2013
Mumbai: Amid allegations of cooperative banks being used as conduits for money laundering, NABARD, which jointly regulates such lenders, has said that it has found no shortcoming pointing towards any such activity. "Every year we do an inspection and we have not found anything like that," National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development's (NABARD) chairman Prakash Bakshi told reporters over the weekend, when asked about the recent controversy over money...
02:22 PM, May 19, 2013
Mumbai: RBI Deputy Governor KC Chakrabarty on Tuesday said the central bank may introduce some corrective measures in KYC norms as an when necessary to check any "transaction-level aberrations" in the functioning of banks. "System is good, there is no problem. There are... (at the) transactional level, some aberration will always take place and there is a need to look into those issues and as and when it is necessary,...
03:15 PM, Apr 23, 2013
New Delhi: Decks have been cleared for clubbing of allowances with basic pay for PF deductions under the EPFO scheme, a move that will increase savings but reduce take-home pay of over five crore subscribers. A review committee, constituted to look into the nitty-gritty of clubbing of allowances with basic pay for PF deductions, has supported the idea for enhancing the social security benefit under the EPF scheme run by...
01:08 PM, Apr 20, 2013
The Supreme Court on Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore on Sterlite Industries, part of Vedanta Resources, for polluting environment through its copper smelting plant in Tamil Nadu. However, the apex court refused to direct closure of the plant in Tuticorin. ...
12:12 PM, Apr 02, 2013
India has tightened its export control norms to prevent sensitive technologies and materials falling in hands of terrorists, thus making a strong case for its membership to key multilateral export control regimes. Asserting that the new norms were more stringent than those practiced by the members of Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) and Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said these will be notified soon. ...
05:53 PM, Mar 13, 2013
Accusing the central government of trying to impose Hindi by making changes in the civil services exam norms, DMK president M Karunanidhi on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw the notification as it would filter out candidates from rural India. ...
06:13 AM, Mar 13, 2013
To attract more overseas investment into the country, government is working on bringing new norms for a common KYC for foreign institutional investors (FII), Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Monday. ...
03:33 PM, Mar 11, 2013
Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed Rs 1 lakh penalty on Bharti Airtel in 2012-13 for violating norms laid by it to check telemarketing calls and SMSes, Parliament was informed. ...
10:47 AM, Feb 28, 2013
Eighteen years ago the Supreme Court had laid down guidelines for trial courts for dealing with rape cases in a "sensitive manner" but experts say the norms for holding in-camera proceedings and avoiding unnecessary probing questions are not being followed strictly. ...
04:40 AM, Dec 31, 2012
India on Monday said it has decided to adopt a liberal visa policy for people of Bangladesh to promote economic engagement, people-to-people contact and tourism between the two neighbouring nations. ...
10:52 AM, Dec 04, 2012
New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on Thursday ordered a probe into the deal struck between US retail giant Walmart and Indian retail major Bharti after allegations of norms violation by Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala, MP Achuthan. Achuthan alleged that the investment deal by Walmart with Bharti violated FDI norms and he charged the US company of end-use violations. He further charged Walmart...
12:51 PM, Oct 11, 2012
Bangalore: Eight-year-old Wajid Pasha was the darling of his family. He had gone out to play after school on Tuesday, but never returned home. His worried parents searched in vain, until on Wednesday morning, they found his body in a water sump at a construction site nearby. The shattered family is now demanding answers. Irshad Ahmed, Wajid's grandfather slams the local administration for not conducting safety checks at construction sites....
09:35 AM, Sep 28, 2012
Thiruvananthapuram: Orders were issued on Tuesday revising the norms for issuing NOCs for buildings after assessing the fire safety measures. For single-storey buildings up to ten metres in height, the NOC will be issued by a committee headed by the Assistant Divisional Officer of the Fire and Rescue Services. The officer in-charge of the fire station concerned, Assistant Station Officer and a Fireman (on rotation basis) will be the members...
02:28 PM, Aug 29, 2012
A copy of a note by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to mobile phone manufacturers, which was reviewed by Mint, gives the manufacturers a year more before their handsets that are not in line with the new radiation norms are phased out. This is the latest in an ongoing attempt by the department to make mobile handset manufacturers conform to the new radiation norms. So far, the September 1 deadline...
02:06 PM, Aug 27, 2012
Chennai: The State Government on Wednesday went on appeal against a single judge order of the High Court last month upholding AICTE norms that set a higher eligibility criteria for admissions to UG technical courses for students under the SC and ST categories.The first bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and A Arumugasami ordered status quo in the matter after accepting the appeal and issued notices to respondents returnable...
07:47 AM, Aug 23, 2012
Chennai: The Madras High Court has granted time till August 22 for the State government to frame draft guidelines for school buses. Originally, while passing interim orders on a suo-motu writ petition, the first bench consisting of Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam, on July 27, had directed the government through Advocate-General A Navaneethakrishnan to frame the draft rules to regulate the use of vehicles carrying...
12:39 PM, Aug 11, 2012
