PNB suspended 10 employees

New Delhi: One of the biggest fraud cases to hit Indian banking, Punjab National Bank (PNB) informed stock exchanges that it has been hit by embezzlement amounting to Rs 11,300 crore at one of its branches in Mumbai.
In 2011 when a letter of undertaking (LoU) was opened at the Fountain branch of PNB in Mumbai by the alleged fraudster. PNB deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty, allegedly used his access to the SWIFT messaging system used by banks for overseas transactions to authenticate guarantees given on LoUs without any sanctions. PNB is denying liability, claiming that these are fraudulent LoU. Bank has suspended 10 employees, and referred the case to CBI and ED.  The fraud is 8 times the bank’s 2016-17 profit of Rs 1,325 crore. It is equal to a third of PNB’s market cap of Rs 35,300 crore.