Twenty-one government banks have witnessed a big loss which amounted to Rs. 25,775 crore due to frauds in the banking sector during the financial year 2017-18.
The highest amount of loss has been incurred by Punjab National Bank (PNB) totaling Rs 6461.13 crore during the fiscal that ended on the 31st March this year. This was told by Chandrasekhar Gaud to the Press Trust of India, who had filed the RTI with the Reserve Bank of India. The reply which was sent to him did not mention any details regarding any particular case of banking fraud.
At present, the Central Bureau of Investigation is scrutinizing one of the biggest baking frauds presumably involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi (diamond merchants) and PNB officials. The investigating agency has filed two charge sheets in the special CBI court (Mumbai) in relation with the Rs 12,636 crore PNB scam.
Talking about the State Bank of India (SBI), it has been reported that due to various cases of banking frauds during this period, it has incurred losses of Rs. 2,390.75 crore.
On the other hand, various other public sector banks (PSBs) have also incurred losses amounting to :
- Bank of India – Rs. 2,224.86 crore
- Bank of Baroda’s – Rs. 1,928.25 crore
- Allahabad Bank – Rs. 1,520.37 crore
- Andhra Bank – Rs. 1,303.30 crore
- Uco Bank – Rs. 1,224.64 crore
- IDBI Bank – Rs 1,116.53 crore
- Union Bank – Rs 1,095.84 crore
- Central Bank of India – Rs 1,084.50 crore
- Bank of Maharashtra – Rs 1,029.23 crore
- Indian Overseas Bank – Rs 1,015.79 crore
- Corporation Bank – Rs 970.89 crore
- United Bank of India – Rs 880.53 crore
- Oriental Bank of Commerce – Rs 650.28 crore
- Syndicate Bank – Rs 455.05 crore
- Canara Bank – Rs 190.77 crore
- Punjab and Sind Bank – Rs 90.01 crore
- Dena Bank – Rs 89.25 crore
- Vijaya Bank – Rs 28.58 crore
- Indian Bank – Rs 24.23-crore
This was the information regarding the amount of losses incurred by the banks as reported by RTI. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) made it quite clear in the RTI that only those cases of fraud, that involve a sum of over Rs. 1 lakh, were to be included in the list. However, it did not disclose the numbers of cases or the nature of fraud.
Economist Jayantilal Bhandari feels sorry and seems worried about the condition of the 21 banks due to these fraudulent practices. Bhandari expressed, “With regard to fraud cases, the banks are not only facing huge economic losses, but the prospects of giving new loans by them in the future are also affected adversely. This situation is obviously not good for the economy.”
The economy is facing problems due to these fraudulent practices and losses faced by the banks but hopefully, the banks are making plans for recovery and everything might come back to normal.