FM breaks silence over PNB fraud, blames auditors for not detecting irregularities
Without naming PNB or Nirav Modi, Jaitley said bank management did not live up to their task as it failed to detect the delinquent.
New Delhi: Breaking his silence over the Rs 11,400 crore fraud at India's second-biggest bank, PNB, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said the state will chase down whosoever cheats the banking system.
Without naming Punjab National Bank or the alleged kingpin of the scam Nirav Modi, Jaitley said bank management did not live up to their task as it failed to detect the delinquent.
He went on to blame auditors for being unable to detect irregularities and asked supervisory agencies to assess the system requirement to detect such frauds.
He said supervisory agencies should ensure that stray cases are nipped in the bud and they are never repeated.
The Punjab National Bank detected a 1.77 billion dollar scam in which jeweller Nirav Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.
The scam which started in 2011 was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.