Cooperative Banks Asked to Set Up Panel for Monitoring Fraud Cases

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has directed all primary (urban) cooperative banks to set up a special committee for monitoring and following up cases of frauds of Rs 1 crore and above.

"It has...been decided that the Boards of banks should constitute a Special Committee for monitoring and following up cases of frauds involving amounts of Rs 1 crore and above exclusively," the RBI said in a notification.

Banks already have an Audit Committee of Board (ACB) to oversee internal inspection, statutory audit, inter branch/inter-bank accounts, balancing of books, major areas of house-keeping.

It is also required to apply preventive measures and follow up action on frauds.

The apex bank said the ACBs of the banks may continue to monitor all the cases of frauds in general.

The RBI said there were observations with regard to delay in various aspects of frauds such as detection, reporting to regulatory and enforcement agencies and action against the perpetrators of the frauds that was causing concern.

It said there was a need for paying focused attention on monitoring of frauds at the highest level.

The special committee should constitute the chairman, two members from ACB and two other from the board, the RBI said.

Major roles of the special committee include identification of systemic lacunae, finding out reasons for delay in detection of fraud cases, monitor progress of CBI/police investigation, and recovery position, ensuring staff accountability, reviewing efficacy of the remedial action taken to prevent recurrence of frauds.