Amid the recent fraud involving the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank which has affected its depositors very harshly, data has revealed that around 2,480 fraud cases involving an overall amount of Rs 31,898.64 crore has hit public sector banks during the first quarter of 2019-20.
During the period, SBI reported the most number of frauds (1197) with an amount of Rs 12,012 crores involved. It was followed by Allahabad Bank, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Maharashtra involving a total reported amount of Rs 7617.71 crores in 759 cases.
Among the banks where its own employees were involved in fraud cases, Allahabad Bank topped the list with 87 cases. "Occurrence of frauds was enabled by lack of discipline in the financial system and lax credit culture," MoS Finance Anurag Thakur said in the Rajya Sabha.
The minister also said that a revised credit culture has been instituted with tighter rules for stakeholders, resulting in fewer such frauds. The minister added that efficient checks on PSU banks' NPA stocks have helped unearth such frauds in recent years.