If you thought that Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were are the only scammers which robbed Indian banks, then think again.
In a Right to Information reply, RBI has revealed some dark secrets of banking frauds, and the sheer volume will shock you.
Fasten your seatbelts!
RBI: Rs 1 Lakh Crore Worth Banking Frauds!
As per the reply shared by RBI, collectively Rs 1 lakh crore worth of banking frauds have happened in India, in the last 5 years.
If we count the number of cases, then 23,000 reports of bank frauds were reported in this period.
Nirav Modi and his uncle ran away after a fraud of Rs 13,000 crore at Punjab National Bank, this was a major contributor to the numbers.
Total fraud to the tune of Rs 28,459 crore happened between April 2017 to March 1, 2018, which is said to be the highest amount of banking fraud reported for a year.
RBI said,
“The reported fraud cases are processed and action is taken according to the facts and circumstances of individual cases,”
Breakdown of Bank Frauds in India
Between April 2017 and March 1, 2018, banking frauds increased at an alarming pace. A total of 5,152 cases of fraud were reported, up from 5076 cases in the same period last year, amounting to Rs 23,933 crore.
In 2015-16, a total of 4,693 bank fraud cases were reported, involving Rs 18,698 crore; while in 2014-15, 4,639 bank fraud cases involving Rs 19,455 crore was reported.
Besides, Non-Performing Assets or NPA worth Rs 8,40,958 crore has already been declared as of December 2017.
NPAs are technically not frauds, but basically, money which banks cannot recover.
With Rs 2,01,560 crore, SBI has the highest number of NPAs. SBI is India’s largest bank.
Biggest Banking Frauds
Right now, both CBI and ED are investigating Rs 600 crore fraud, as reported in IDBI bank.
CMD of the IDBI Bank, Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran and his son are being investigated for the fraud.
Rs 11,400 crore worth fraud by Nirav Modi executed in PNB Bank is the highest amount of banking fraud reported in the last 24 months. Rs 800 crore were recently scooped away by a jewellery dealer, in which 14 banks were involved.
Approximately Rs 1.6 crore per hour is lost in banking related frauds in India.