Probing money laundering: RBI noose tightens

The Reserve Bank of India is believed to have found instances of violations by officials at private lenders ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, who were reportedly found guilty of violating know your customer norms, in a sting operation by Cobrapost.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is believed to have found instances of violations by officials at private lenders ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, who were reportedly found guilty of violating know your customer (KYC) norms, in a sting operation by Cobrapost.

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“The RBI, in its probe, has found that there have been some instances where bank officials have not done proper KYC for larger transactions,” said a source in the RBI.

While the market was abuzz with talks about banks being found guilty in the RBI probe, HT could not verify the rumours.

The regulator declined to share details about the probe. “The investigation of banks is a supervisory matter and is always dealt with bilaterally with concerned banks by the RBI. We do not share it with media,” said the RBI.

Cobrapost had, on March 14, alleged that the three banks were involved in money laundering activities by accepting black money from customers to convert them into white money.

If found guilty, the banks could be heavily penalised, said a banking source.