RBI penalises ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank for violating KYC norms
Moneylife Digital Team 11 June 2013

Following the Cobrapost exposé, the central bank investigation found prima facie evidence of KYC violations. It however, did not find any substantial info on money laundering and said, any conclusive inference can be drawn after investigation of the transactions by tax and enforcement agencies

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed penalties on Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank for violating guidelines related to “know your customer” (KYC) rules. The RBI has imposed a penalty of Rs5 crore on Axis Bank, Rs4.5 crore on HDFC Bank and Rs1 crore on ICICI Bank.

 

The RBI rap on the three private sector banks in the wake of the Cobrapost exposé affected their share prices in morning trade on Tuesday. However, the impact was not significant since the banking regulator’s investigations prima facie did not find any evidence for the more serious charge of money laundering.

 

“...the investigation did not reveal any prima facie evidence of money laundering. However, any conclusive inference in this regard can be drawn only by an end to end investigation of the transactions by tax and enforcement agencies,” the central bank said in a statement.

 

During March and April 2013, RBI said it investigated scrutiny of accounts, compliance systems, internal control and processes of these banks from the private sector at their corporate offices and braches. The investigation revealed violation of certain regulations and instructions including …

  • non-observance of certain safeguards in respect of arrangement of "at par" payment of cheques drawn by cooperative banks,
  • non-adherence to certain aspects of know your customer (KYC) norms and anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines like risk categorisation and periodical review of risk profiling of account holders,
  • Non-adherence of KYC for walk-in customers including for sale of third party products, omission in filing of cash transaction reports (CTRs) in respect of some cash transactions, sale of gold coins for cash beyond Rs50,000
  • Not obtaining of permanent account number (PAN) card details or form 60/61 as required,
  • non-verification of source of funds credited to a few non-resident ordinary (NRO) accounts,
  • Failure to re-designate a few accounts as NRO accounts though required, non-submission of proper information called for by the reserve Bank, etc.

 

Earlier, the central bank had issued show-cause notices to ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank. In a statement, RBI said, “After considering the facts of each case and individual bank’s reply, as also, personal submissions, information submitted and documents furnished, the Reserve Bank came to the conclusion that some of the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty.”

 

At 11.40am, ICICI Bank was trading 3% down at Rs1,085, while Axis Bank and HDFC Bank were trading 2% and 0.5% at Rs1,329 and Rs674, respectively on the BSE, while the benchmark Sensex was 1.1% down at 19,228.

Comments
Arun Mehta
1 decade ago
Axis bank has already started to recover theRBI ' penalty' from existing customers by informing them new charges for a/c holders by asking them certain charges which were free otherwise and unless you write to them deduction will start from 15 june.If RBI keeps imposing penalties Very soon one can expect 'personal' interaction charges if you wan't to talk to a human being in the Bank.
DEEPAK KHEMANI
Replied to Arun Mehta comment 1 decade ago
Shame on Axis Bank if they are actually doing so. Now we know how CUSTOMER FRIENDLY these private banks are!
DEEPAK KHEMANI
Replied to Arun Mehta comment 1 decade ago
shame shame
Harish M Belani
1 decade ago
This is Not Even a Slap but a TAP on the Wrist...
DEEPAK KHEMANI
1 decade ago
Paltry amounts considering how BIG these banks are.
There is still no admission of guilt from any of the banks mentioned, while small depositors and S/B account holders are receiving calls from their RM's to update their KYC's as directed by RBI(its a 2008 circular)otherwise the accounts will be frozen. I personally had to get this done with HDFC Bank.
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