Nirav Modi Fraud: PNB to beef up its system, processes for lending

New Delhi, Mar 22: Hit hard by the Rs 13,000 crore scam, PNB has decided to tighten loan disbursement and set up a monitoring mechanism to check loan slippages and fraud. Some of the ideas being considered include having a separate pre-sanction appraisal and post sanction monitoring teams for credit disbursal to ensure better governance and transparency, official sources said.

A new monitoring group will be set up to keep track of whether cash flow from projects is being used to repay bank loans and that there are no slippages, sources said, adding that a separate vertical to be created for stressed asset recovery. This will be tried out as a pilot in some branches before a roll out nationally in the next 6 months, the sources said.

These changes are being made as part of Mission Parivartan drive which the bank has embarked on earlier this week. In a bid to improver customer convenience, sources said, automating customer response mechanism is to be implemented soon so as to ensure timely intervention and evaluate performance on timely resolution of customer disputes and complaints across branches.

The bank is also actively looking to leverage benefits of emerging technology including AI and analytics both from a greater control over the audit process as well as providing a one stop suite of financial services with a single touch point, they said.

Billionaire jeweller designer Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connivance with certain bank officials allegedly cheated the PNB of Rs 12,968 crore through fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs). A Mumbai branch of Punjab National Bank had issued as many as 1,590 letters of undertaking (LoUs) fraudulently for the group of companies belonging to Nirav Modi since March 2011.

Different investigating agencies, including CBI and Enforcement Directorate, are probing the fraud, dubbed as the biggest banking scam in the country.

PTI