Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised the banks vide in circular Ref. No.DBS.CO.PPD / 4220/11.01.005/2016-17 dated November 29, 2016 to take action to prevent / detect / contain the malpractices or wrongdoing by staff in branches exchange / deposit of Specified Bank Notes (SBN). The banks were also advised vide the same circular to strengthen the internal / concurrent audit process in the bank including random visits / scrutinies so as to detect and avoid any malpractice in the exchange / deposit of SBNs in the branches. Further, on December 8, 2016 the banks were advised vide RBI DBS circular Ref. No.DBS.CO.PPD / 4480/11.01.005/2016-17 dated December 8, 2016 to track the complete trail of cash movements in large quantities so as to ensure that the extant instructions of Reserve Bank of India are followed both in letter and spirit. Further a list of 22 action points (illustrative)also was forwarded to banks with an advice to utilise their internal audit resources to monitor the position and bring any anomalies noticed to their Audit Committee of the Board so as to ensure that necessary action is taken in all such cases, apart from reporting the summary of findings to RBI.

Banks have reported 14 cases (branches) where bank employees have been found involved in ‘irregular exchange transaction’ of Specified Bank Note (SBN) during the phase of Demonetisation,

Bank wise details are as follows:

Action against the staff for malpractices are taken by the respective banks as per their Staff Accountability policy.

This was stated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

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DSM/KA