Budget 2018-19

RBI seeks detailed report on what happened between 2011 and now; bankers to recall loans to  Nirav Modi entities   The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised Punjab National Bank (PNB) to pay up dues to banks for claims against letters of undertakings (LoUs) and also sought a detailed report on what happened between 2011 and now. Moving into damage control mode after the LoU fraud amounting to Rs 114 billion, the banking regulator also asked all lenders to tighten their monitoring of such LoUs and enhance due diligence in issuing these letters of comfort and non-fund based activities. A top executive at a Mumbai-based public sector bank said the RBI had communicated that PNB would have to honour all its obligations related to LoUs. A junior branch official fraudulently issued LoUs without authority on behalf of firms belonging to the Nirav Modi group — Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds, and Diamonds R Us — for availing of buyers’ credit from overseas branche...

Core banking system bypassed to issue unauthorised and fraudulent guarantees   In what may turn out to be one of the biggest scams in the country’s corporate history, Delhi-based Punjab National Bank (PNB) said on Wednesday it had been defrauded of about Rs 114 billion by jeweller Nirav Modi, his maternal uncle Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, and other relatives through a clutch of companies they own. The country’s second-largest public sector bank (PSB) said two of its employees were involved in the scam, where the bank’s core banking system was bypassed to raise payment notes to overseas branches of other Indian banks, including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, and Union Bank of India, using the international financial communication system, SWIFT. Three jewellers  Gitanjali  Gems and its subsidiaries Gili and Nakshatra are also under the scanner of investigation agencies. Executives in other banks said they were insulated against the fraud, as the payment r...