Cobrapost Expose – Finance Ministry instructs Banks
IN connection with Cobrapost, Red Spider 2 Expose that was released yesterday, the Secretary, Department of Financial Services Rajiv Takru has asked the Chairman cum Managing Directors (CMDs) of various Public Sector Banks (PSBs) as well as Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India for immediate action on the following lines:
(i) Any officer/employee of the bank/institution who clearly appears to be advising potential customers along lines that would be an infringement of the legal process/could facilitate money laundering/could defeat the KYC norms or the norms of due diligence prescribed by RBI and the law from time to time, may be placed under suspension with immediate effect pending inquiry .
(ii) In case where the behaviour and conduct of the officer / agent is not such as would attract point (i) above but fails to meet the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of an officer / employee / agent of a public sector institution and/or brings the institution or is likely to bring the institution into disrepute, such person may immediately be divested of their work / portfolio and advised to voluntarily proceed on leave while a detailed examination on the same lines as above is conducted.
The Cobrapost expose says, Twenty-Three Major Indian Banks, Both Public and Private, and Insurance Companies, are Running a Nation-Wide Money Laundering Racket, Blatantly Violating the Laws of the Land. And the culprits being exposed are: Life Insurance Corporation, State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, IDBI Bank, Yes Bank, Federal Bank, Reliance Capital, Birla Sunlife and many, many others. The expose says that money laundering is not confined to private banks, and is not an aberration, as is being made out in certain quarters in the wake of the first expose on March 14 in which HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were shown involved in money laundering; it is rather endemic overarching the entire banking system and insurance sector, without exception, however shocking it might be. The scale is vast and unfathomable.
The expose declares that:
(i) Money laundering practices are part and parcel of banking and insurance business across the board;
(ii) Even a walk-in customer can avail of such services that help him launder all his unaccounted cash;
(iii) Money laundering services are being offered openly as a standard product across the board.