Guwahati: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, by an order dated May 25, imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 84.50 lakh on the Central Bank of India for non-compliance with certain provisions of RBI and ‘Master Circular on Customer Service in banks.
This penalty has been imposed in exercise of powers vested in RBI under the provisions of Section 47 A (1) (c) read with sections 46 (4) (i) and 51 (1) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
This action is based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.
RBI conducted the Statutory Inspection for Supervisory Evaluation (lSE) of the bank with reference to its financial position as on March 31, 2021. The examination of the Risk Assessment Report, Inspection Report and all related correspondences pertaining to the same revealed, inter alia, non-compliance with the aforesaid directions by the bank to the extent it (i) failed to report as fraud to RBI certain accounts within seven days of decision of Joint Lenders’ Forum (JLF) to declare the accounts as fraud and (ii) recovered SMS alert charges from its customers on flat basis rather than on actual usage basis.
A notice was issued to the bank advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed on it for failure to comply with the said directions, as stated therein.