MUMBAI: At least 14 cases of banking fraud took place every single day in the past one year, according to RBI data.In fact, the number of fraud cases has been consistent at an average of 12 a day during the last five years. Together, they involve a staggering Rs 1,00,718 crore.
The total number of fraud cases in five years stood at 23,866 (involving Rs 1 lakh or above in each case), while in the past one year (between April, 2017 and March 1, 2018) 5,152 cases were reported. A year before, ie., in FY17, there were 5,076 cases involving an amount of Rs 23,933 crore. RBI disclosed this data in reply to an RTI query filed by news agency PTI.
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Interestingly, while the number of cases reported grew in single digits, at an average rate of 4.6 per cent in the five years between FY14 and FY18, the amount involved grew in double digits, averaging 16.4 per cent during the same period. The surge in the amounts has been sharp in the past two years, at 18 per cent and 19 per cent in FY17 and FY18, respectively.
FY18 also has the highest-ever amount of Rs 28,459 crore (reported from April, 2017 to March 1, 2018), according to the data. This, perhaps, includes the Rs 13,000-crore fraud at the country’s second largest public sector lender, Punjab National Bank (PNB), allegedly perpetrated by jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems.
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The central bank said that the reported fraud cases were processed and action was taken according to the facts and circumstances of the cases.
The latest to come under the CBI scanner include the former MD and CEO of IDBI Bank, Kishor Kharat, and the former deputy MD of IDBI Bank, Melwyn Rego. Kharat is currently heading Indian Bank, while Rego is the chief of Syndicate Bank. The former CMD of IDBI, MS Raghavan, too was named in the FIR filed by the CBI relating to the Rs 600-crore loan fraud case at IDBI. As on December 2017, the gross NPAs of all banks stood at Rs 8.4 lakh crore.
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