The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a 20 million rupee ($289,880) penalty on Punjab National Bank for failing to comply with its guidelines on the use of the global payments network SWIFT, the state-run lender said on Tuesday.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The RBI has fined at least 19 other lenders, including top banks such as ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, this month for similar non-compliance.

The RBI sent a letter to PNB on Monday informing it of the fine, citing regulatory violations during assessment of SWIFT- related operations, PNB said in a stock exchange filing without disclosing the nature of the violations.

India`s banking sector suffered a massive hit from a $2 billion fraud at PNB that came to light last year, involving unauthorised credit guarantees to businesses linked to Indian billionaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi via SWIFT.

Modi left the country before India`s biggest banking fraud was uncovered. He was arrested last week by British authorities and remanded in custody after he appeared before a London court.

After the fraud`s discovery RBI sent a confidential directive to banks about how they must use the SWIFT payment system, requiring most lenders to overhaul their systems.

($1 = 68.9940 Indian rupees)

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)