Government owned Bank of Baroda has suspended two senior officials and initiated investigation to verify if its internal systems were tempered that led to Rs 6000 crore forex scam in its Delhi's branch. On Saturday it emerged that there were suspicious transactions from its Delhi's Ashok Vihar branch where US dollars equivalent to Rs 6172 crore were remitted to a counter party in Hong Kong.
On Saturday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has raided the Bank of Baroda's branch to investigate the irregularities in forex transactions. B B Joshi, executive director of Bank of Baroda could not be reached for comment. The development comes at a time when a career banker with Citibank, P S Jayakumar, is set to join as MD & CEO next week. He is among the few bankers from private sector chosen by the government to head a PSU bank.
A senior bank officials who did not want speak on record said that although the scam appears big, it will not have any impact their bottomline. "We will not be out of our pocket. But we have suffered reputation risk," he said. "Two of the senior officials from the branch are suspended. We are investigating on how such abnormal transactions bypassed out system," said another senior official who did not want to be named.
Senior officials said that the internal inspection department alerted the head office that their audit report has unearthed a sudden spike in forex volumes in their Delhi branch. Following this a flash report was issued and the bank filed an FIR or First Information Report and also alerted CBI.
According to media reports, between August 1, 2014 and August 12 this year, there were 8,667 forex transactions from the branch, prompting the bank to probe the matter. The bank's internal audit found that the forex business of its Ashok Vihar branch rose 500 times to Rs 21,529 crore in 2014-15 over previous year which had reported forex business of Rs 45 crore, said media reports.
On Saturday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has raided the Bank of Baroda's branch to investigate the irregularities in forex transactions. B B Joshi, executive director of Bank of Baroda could not be reached for comment. The development comes at a time when a career banker with Citibank, P S Jayakumar, is set to join as MD & CEO next week. He is among the few bankers from private sector chosen by the government to head a PSU bank.
A senior bank officials who did not want speak on record said that although the scam appears big, it will not have any impact their bottomline. "We will not be out of our pocket. But we have suffered reputation risk," he said. "Two of the senior officials from the branch are suspended. We are investigating on how such abnormal transactions bypassed out system," said another senior official who did not want to be named.
Senior officials said that the internal inspection department alerted the head office that their audit report has unearthed a sudden spike in forex volumes in their Delhi branch. Following this a flash report was issued and the bank filed an FIR or First Information Report and also alerted CBI.
According to media reports, between August 1, 2014 and August 12 this year, there were 8,667 forex transactions from the branch, prompting the bank to probe the matter. The bank's internal audit found that the forex business of its Ashok Vihar branch rose 500 times to Rs 21,529 crore in 2014-15 over previous year which had reported forex business of Rs 45 crore, said media reports.
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