ICICI tops list of banks penalising staff for fraud

In all, banks took action against a staggering 13,949 officials, of which 16 per cent, or 2,236, belonged to ICICI.
A ICICI bank facility (File | Reuters)
A ICICI bank facility (File | Reuters)

Private lender ICICI Bank penalised the highest number of employees for defrauding bank assets in the last three years. Of the 60 scheduled commercial banks operating in India, the Mumbai-based bank topped the list of those taking action against staff for their involvement in frauds during the three years through 2015 to 2017, shows data presented in the Parliament.SBI stood next in terms of action initiated against employees involved in frauds, followed by Punjab National Bank.

In all, banks took action against a staggering 13,949 officials, of which 16 per cent, or 2,236, belonged to ICICI. The bank is currently facing adjudication proceedings by Sebi following quid pro quo allegations against its former CEO & MD Chanda Kochhar, who stepped down in October.

Interestingly, the number of employees pulled up by ICICI has been on the rise from 732 in 2015 to 879 in 2017, even as the total  number of bank officials against whom action was taken for bank frauds involving an amount of Rs 1 lakh or more, has been declining from 5,785 in 2015 to 3,804 in 2017.

According to data furnished by the Reserve Bank of India, between 2015 and 2017, SBI took action against 1,287 — nearly half that of ICICI Bank — while PNB penalised about 1,127 employees. PNB, which reported the banking sector’s biggest fraud aggregating Rs 14,000-crore early this year, saw action taken against employees slide down from 420 in 2015 to 376 in 2017.

Meanwhile, among other state-run banks, Central Bank of India initiated action against 728 employees, while Bank of Baroda penalised 674 during the past three years. Among private lenders, Axis Bank, took action against 607, while new entrants like Bandhan and Equitas Small Finance Bank pulled up 139 and 15 employees respectively.

However, the number of bank fraud cases which resulted in action against employees saw a steady decline over the three years. A total of 5,785 bank employees were charged with fraud in 2015, which reduced to 4,360 in 2016. This fell further to 3,804 cases in 2017.

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