Banks for Raising Cover Against Fraud by Staff
Rattled by a spate of frauds in the banking sector, lenders are now planning to increase insurance cover against delinquencies by their employees to protect their bottomlines.
"Frauds of such magnitude and scale – PNB fraud of Rs 11,400 crore and OBC of fraud Rs 390 crore – has forced us to consider substantially much higher risk cover than the basic banker's indemnity policy which various banks have right now," a top public-sector bank official told PTI.
For example, SBI alone in 2016-17 reported frauds of Rs 2,424.74 crore (837 cases). Out of this, an amount of Rs 2,360.37 crore (278 cases) represents advances declared as frauds.
However, the official said that cover can be for fraud not for the wilful default where number of lenders are involved, and these two have to be dealt separately.
The official said, for example, the cases of Winsome Diamond Group and Nirav Modi are completely different, and the legal treatment and provision for both are diverse.
PNB's Internal Auditor Remanded to 14 Days CBI Custody
Punjab National Bank's Internal Chief Auditor (Retd) Bishnubrata Mishra remanded to CBI custody till 14th March by a court in Mumbai.
Mishra was arrested by CBI yesterday.
US Won't Confirm Reports of Nirav Modi Being in the Country
At a time when India is expecting assistance from the US in tracing Nirav Modi, a State Department official has said that they are unable to confirm if he is in the country. “We are aware of recent media reports that Nirav Modi is in the United States but cannot confirm them,” the spokesperson told PTI.
When asked specifically about whether India can get help from the department in hunting down Modi, the spokesperson said, “We refer you to the Department of Justice for questions on legal assistance to the Indian authorities in relation to their investigation of Modi.”
However, the Department of Justice has refused to comment on the issue.
PNB Gets New Executive Director
Punjab National Bank appointed Lingam Venkata Prabhakar as the Executive Director for a period of three years on Thursday, 1 March.
Prabhakar's appointment follows retirement of Ram S Sangapure who demitted the office of the Executive Director on 28 February, after attaining the age of superannuation, PNB said in a regulatory filing.
Police Arrest Retired Staff of Brady House Branch
The CBI on Thursday, 1 March arrested Chief Manager, Internal Chief Auditor (retd) Shri Bishnubrata Mishra, who was responsible for concurrent audit for the period 2011-2015 at PNB Brady House branch, reported ANI.
He was reportedly responsible for auditing the procedures and practices followed in branch.