Axis Bank Suspends More Employees Suspected Of Irregularities

Axis Bank management has suspended a few more erring officials who are suspected to be involved in irregularities post demonetisation. This was disclosed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today.

In an interaction with the media, Mr Jaitley, said, "Banks have identified those employees who were not caught by the government agencies. The Axis Bank chairperson today gave us the details of those employees who were not caught by the investigative agencies but were suspected of having helped in the fraud. Those employees have been suspended by the bank."

Axis Bank chief had earlier met Mr Jaitley as part of a pre-budget meeting of the finance minister with bankers.

The Income Tax Department had earlier unearthed Rs 60 crore from the accounts of 20 shell companies in a raid at the Noida branch of Axis bank. Enforcement Department is conducting the investigation at Axis Bank. The fake accounts were created using forged documents.

After the fraud came into light, the Axis Bank MD and CEO Shikha Sharma said that KPMG has been hired to conduct a forensic audit for enhanced due diligence and building more safeguards.

Ms Sharma had earlier regretted that the misdeeds of a few people "have eroded the hard work of 55,000-plus employees, who have been at the front end beyond working hours, displaying extraordinary patience and commitment to their responsibilities".

On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced demonetisation of the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. The government has given time till December 30 to submit or exchange all the old notes with the banks. Around Rs 13 lakh crore worth of old notes have retuned in the banking system since the announcement of demonetisation. According to government estimates Rs 15.5 lakh crore of old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes were in in circulation before demonetisation.