Corporate fraud worth ₹26,757 at SBI in just seven months

Corporate frauds worth ₹26,757 crores have been reported at State Bank of India (SBI), the largest public sector bank of India, in the first seven months of this fiscal year.

According to the data disclosed by the SBI itself, the number of frauds at SBI have almost trebled during this period in comparison with the last financial year.

The Economic Times has reported that data disclosed in the initial public offering (IPO) document of the SBI Cards suggests that while corporate fraud worth ₹ 10,725 crores was reported in whole FY 2018-19, in the current financial year between April and November, SBI has recorded corporate fraud worth ₹ 26,757 crores.

According to the report, instances of frauds have risen to 48 so far in FY 2019-20 compared to 25 in FY 2018-19, and 8 in FY 2017-18. It says the majority of these corporate frauds happened in earlier years but were being declared by the bank now.

It is worth mentioning that according to RBI data, in most of the cases, it takes nearly 55 months for a large ticket corporate fraud to be detected and reported by an Indian bank.

“The development comes at a time when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been increasingly nudging lenders to become more proactive in reporting frauds. It has also asked banks to examine unresolved NPAs worth more than Rs 50 crore from the fraud angle,” reads the ET report.