During the months of April to December 2016, over 3,500 cases of the fraudulent transaction have robbed the bank of Rs 177.50 billion which involved the use of 450 public and private sector bank employees. Public sector bank lost Rs 22,743 crore due to the fraudulent banking transactions between the year 2012 and 2016. The data provided by the Reserve Bank of India states that during the first nine months of the Fiscal year 2017, there were 455 cases of fraudulent transactions in ICICI Bank, 429 in SBI, 244 at Standard Chartered Bank and 237 at HDFC Bank.
The report also shows that 60 employees from the State Bank of India, 49 from HDFC and 35 from Axis Bank were involved in the fraud. Recently in light of the PNB fraud, PNB has suspended over its 20 employees.
Below is a time of 6 biggest bank scams in India which brought into question the reliability and integrity of Indian Banks.
2011
In 2011, CBI revealed that the executives of Banks like Bank Of Maharashtra, Oriental Bank of Commerce and IDBI created almost 10,000 fictitious accounts and an amount of Rs 1.5 billion in loans were transferred.
2014
In 2014, nine FIRs were filed against a number of public sector banks related to a fixed deposit scam which was amounting to Rs. 7 billion. Besides this scam, another scam was the bribe for loan scam involving the ex-Chairman and MD of Syndicate Bank which was worth Rs. 8 Billion. In this same year, Vijay Mallya was declared a defaulter by the Union Bank of India.
2015
In 2015, another scam involving the employees of Jain Infra-projects who defrauded Central Bank of India of Rs. 2 billion. In 2015 itself, employees of various banks did a foreign exchange scam involving a Phony Hong Kong Corporation. This scam cost around Rs 60 Billion.
2016
Biggest bank frauds of 2016 were the one in which four people almost created 380 bank accounts and defrauded the Syndicate Bank of Rs 10 billion using fake cheques, LoUs and LIC policies.
2017
In 2017, Mallya’s debt rose to 9.5 billion to IDBI and other bank branches. While CBI was busy preparing the charge sheet, Mallya had already fled the country. Currently, he lives in the UK and he is being sought to be extradited back to India for a hearing in Westminster Court.
2018
The fresh bank scam which got a lot of attention is PNB scam involving the Diamond merchant Nirav Modi. Till now the elements which have come to light are that Nirav Modi’s company in connivance with some retired employees of PNB got at least 150 LoUs which enabled Nirav Modi to Defraud the banks and many other banks who gave loans to him. According to Indian Express Nirav Modi has defrauded other banks of Rs 3000 crore. Reports are that he along with his family and partners has fled the country and currently living in the United States.
