Banking frauds cost 21 state-owned banks Rs 25,775 crore in 2017-’18, with the Punjab National Bank accounting for a quarter of the losses, PTI reported on Sunday. The information was given by the Reserve Bank of India in response to a Right to Information query.
The central bank did not specify details of the cases of fraud in its reply. Only cases of fraud involving more than Rs 1 lakh were included in the list.
Punjab National Bank incurred losses of Rs 6,461.1 crore during the fiscal year due to fraud, while State Bank of India lost Rs 2,390.7 crore. The losses recorded by Bank of India were Rs 2,224.9 crore. Bank of Baroda lost around Rs 1,928.2 crore and Allahabad Bank Rs 1,520.4 crore.
Andhra Bank, UCO Bank, IDBI Bank, Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and Indian Overseas Bank had losses of over Rs 1,000 crore in 2017-’18 because of cases of fraud, the RBI said in its reply.
Earlier in May, the Reserve Bank of India had said in another RTI response that more than 23,000 cases of fraud, involving about Rs 1 lakh crore, were reported by banks over the last five years. Between April 1, 2017, and March 1, 2018, a total of 5,152 cases of fraud, involving Rs 28,459 crore, were reported, the Reserve Bank said.
The information from the RBI comes after billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi fled the country in January after allegedly defrauding the Punjab National Bank of more than Rs 13,000 crore.
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