The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a monetary penalty on ICICI Bank Ltd for flouting rules related to the sale of securities.
In a press release issued on Thursday, the regulator said that a monetary penalty of Rs 58.9 crore has been imposed on the lender. The penalty has been imposed due to non-compliance with rules related to the sale of securities held in the bank’s HTM or Held-To-Maturity portfolio. The RBI did not specify what rules had been flouted.
As per the RBI’s rules, securities acquired by the banks with the intention to hold them up to maturity are classified under the HTM bucket. The RBI prescribes limits upto which banks can transfer and sell securities held under this category.
The penalty imposed by the RBI on ICICI Bank is among the largest. The regulator has imposed penalties on a number of banks in recent times for flouting various norms. In March, the RBI imposed a Rs 3 crore penalty on Axis Bank for violation of non-performing asset classification norms, and a Rs 2 crore penalty on Indian Overseas Bank for not complying with the KYC regulations. Prior to that, in October a penalty of Rs 6 crore was imposed on Yes Bank and a Rs 2 crore penalty was imposed on IDFC Bank for violating various norms set by the regulator.
(This story was originally published on BloombergQuint.)
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