Punjab National Bank (PNB) has suspended twelve employees and has filed a case with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after it came to light that a senior branch official with the help of some outsiders, managed to use the branch managers' password and transfer funds from individual accounts, a senior official confirmed.
The bank is still investigating the full impact of the fraud and currently has put the total amount lost at less than Rs 10 crore, lower than social media claims of Rs 35 crore. “This person in the branch used the password of the branch manager to make some unauthorised transfers from various individual bank accounts. All the employees involved including the branch manager whose password was used have been suspended pending enquiry,” said a senior PNB official.
Media reports said that customers of a PNB branch in Greater Noida have alleged that nearly Rs 35 crore went missing from their savings accounts and fixed deposits. Several account holders claimed that they had neither authorised the transactions nor received alerts about the fund transfers. The senior PNB official however said that the amount is lower.
“Our initial estimate is that the total amount which went out of the accounts is less than Rs 10 crore, but investigations are still on going. In the next few days and we thoroughly examine what has happened we will be able to crystalize the exact amount and initiate the recovery process,” the senior official said.
The bank has not yet issued an official statement about the case. An email query from ET was not replied till press time. The official confirmed that the fraudulent transactions was done by a female staff member in the branch by misusing passwords of other employees including the branch manager. All those whose passwords were misused have been suspended.
