Mumbai, July 15: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has penalised 22 banks, including the country's largest bank State Bank of India for violation of its instructions, among other things, on Know Your Customer (KYC)/Anti Money Laundering (AML) norms.
Among public sector lenders, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, and Indian Overseas Bank have been imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 3 crore each, while Punjab Nation Bank, Andhra Bank and United Bank of India are charged with Rs 2.5 crore each.
Among private sector banks, RBI has penalised Federal Bank (Rs 3 crore), YES Bank (Rs 2 crore), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd (Rs 1.5 crore) and ING Vysya Bank (Rs 1.5 crore).
Earlier, the central bank had penalised Axis Bank (Rs 5 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 4.5 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 1 crore) in June.
The RBI said in a statement that it has imposed the penalty "for violation of its instructions, among other things, on know your customer (norms) and anti-money laundering (guidelines)".
The other banks which have been penalized by RBI are Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Yes Bank, Ratnakar Bank and Deutsche Bank.
According to the RBI, "Based on the findings of the scrutiny, the Reserve Bank issued a show cause notice to each of these banks, in response to which the individual banks submitted written replies."
Bank has further added that after considering the facts of each case and individual bank's reply, as also, personal submissions, information submitted and documents furnished, the Reserve Bank came to the conclusion that (charges of) some of the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty.
