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: 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
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. ... 
