New Delhi, Mar 16: ICICI Bank has suspended 18 employees, a day after the lender and two of its peers were accused of indulging in money laundering activities.
The suspension is pending the bank's investigation into money laundering charges, sources in ICICI told PTI. The probe is expected to be completed in two weeks.
Private sector lender Axis Bank today said it has asked 16 concerned officials to report to administrative offices, pending investigation which has been initiated with regard to alleged money laundering activities.
“The bank has initiated an internal enquiry. Pending outcome of the enquiry, we have asked 16 concerned employees to report to administrative offices,” sources in the Axis Bank said.
Country's three largest private banks ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank, were on Thursday accused of indulging in money laundering both within and outside, with an online portal Cobrapost claiming that a sting operation conducted by it has revealed a scam.
The portal Cobrapost had played the contents of purported video recording of officials of private banks including ICICI Bank, allegedly agreeing to receive unverified sums of cash and put them in their investment schemes and benami accounts in violation of anti-money laundering laws.
The footage taken in ‘Operation Red Spider', purportedly shows a number of senior executives of the three banks verbally agreeing to take huge amounts of cash from the undercover reporter and putting them into a variety of long-term investment plans so that the black money ultimately is converted into white.
However, no account was opened nor any cash deposited in these banks.
After the sting operation was played out, ICICI Bank had said they have constituted a high-level inquiry and a report in this regard will be submitted in two weeks.
“ICICI group conducts its business with the highest level of compliance to legal and regulatory requirements. All employees of the group are trained and required to adhere strictly to the Group Code of Conduct, including AML and KYC norms,” the bank had said.
Soon after the revelation, Axis bank in a statement had said “Axis Bank has systems and processes that are robust and fully compliant with extant regulations...we are confident that all our businesses will live up to the high standards we have set for ourselves as a bank.”
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