Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in the Lok Sabha that the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India have taken corrective measures in the IPO scam. Ten commercial banks have been charged penalties for their involvement, he said in his reply to a question by Neeta Pateriya.
"The banks against whom action has been taken are Bharat Overseas Bank Limited, Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Banks, ICICI, HDFC, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, IDBI, ING Vysya Bank and Centurion Bankof Punjab," he said.
Though, Chidambaram said, strict instructions have been passed by the RBI on lending, a few muliple appilcants could not be detected by a few branches of the banks named above. Action has been initiated against the managers of these banks.
None of the defaulting banks has been allowed to open new branches unless they comply with the new RBI and Sebi guidelines and evolve a system that would detect multiple applicants.
Replying to another question, P K Bansal, minister of state for finance in charge of banking, said proceedings have been launched by various banks against their officials for their alleged involvement in fraud and corruption.
Number of officials charged under cases of fraud were 2,188 in 2003, 1,786 in 2004 and 1,659 in 2005.
Number of bank officials booked for corruption were 547 in 2003, 513 in 2004 and 526 in 2005 and number of officials removed from service in those three years stood at 84, 71 and 60 respectively.
Replying to another question Chidambaram said Rs 929.54 crore (Rs 9.29 billion) has been lying unclaimed in various banks of India.
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