Public sector banks (PSBs) accounted for the bulk of frauds reported in 2018-19, with 55.4 per cent of the number of cases reported and 90.2 per cent of the amount involved, mainly reflecting the lack of adequate internal processes, people and systems to tackle operational risks, a RBI report released on Tuesday said.
Private banks’ and foreign banks’ shares in number of frauds was at 30.7 per cent and 11.2 per cent, resprectively, whereas their shares in the latter were 7.7 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively. PSBs’ share in the value of large frauds was even higher at 91.6 per cent in 2018-19, as per the Reserve Bank of India’s ” Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2018-19″ report.
Frauds have been predominantly occurring in the loan portfolio, both in terms of number and value. Incidents relating to other areas of banking viz., card/internet, off-balance sheet and forex transactions, in terms of value, have reduced (in terms of date of reporting) in 2018-19 vis-a-vis the previous year.
The modus operandi of large value frauds – that account for 86.4 per cent of all frauds reported during the year in terms of value – involved diversion of funds by borrowers through various means, mainly via associated or shell companies, accounting regularities, manipulating financial or stock statements, opening current accounts with banks outside the lending consortium without a no-objection certificate from lenders, and devolving of Letter of Credits (LCs).
The report presents the performance of the banking sector, including co-operative banks, and non-banking financial institutions during 2018-19 and 2019-20 (till June 30) so far.
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