In the wake of disclosure of transgressions in its network, including a case in Noida which came to light today, private sector lender Axis Bank said it has so far suspended 50 accounts and 24 employees for suspicious activities.
Asserting that investigating agencies acted on tip-offs provided by the bank itself, it admitted that the adverse publicity was affecting its brand, but hoped this was temporary.
Axis' retail banking head Rajiv Anand said that so far the investigating agencies had visited eight branches, including five in New Delhi, and the number of employees suspended has gone up to 24 from 19 last week.
The bank has defined criteria for flagging such transactions and regularly files STRs (suspicious transaction reports) and cash transactions reports with the Financial Investigation Unit, he said, adding all suspicious deals reported/investigated till now were first reported by the bank as STRs.
The bank, which files an average of up to 200-300 STRs a month, has filed 1,500 STRs since the demonetisation announcement.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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