Page 6 - Banking Finance May 2025

BANK UPDATE

"The act has received the assent of the Rs 1.3 crore from frozen accounts at a station, along with the detective
President on April 15, 2025," the offi- private bank. department's anti-cheating wing, have
cial notification stated. The new legis- The accused, identified as Sagar Lakura launched an investigation against a
lation introduces key changes, includ- (23) from Rajasthan's Sirohi district, and relationship manager of a private bank
ing allowing bank account holders to his associates Abhimanyu Kumar Panday accused of defrauding a client of Rs 1.1
nominate up to four individuals for (26) and Neeraj Singh (28) from Delhi, crore.
their bank accounts, safety lockers, fraudulently obtained an official-looking The accused allegedly convinced the
and articles kept in safe custody with email ID from the Karnataka State Wide complainant, a resident of AJC Bose
banks. This is a significant shift from Area Network (KSWAN) by impersonat- Road, to invest money through a dubi-
the current rule allowing only one ing a police officer. ous company called B Agency under
nominee.
They used this fake email ID to com- the pretense of mutual funds and stock
Under the new provisions, deposit municate with ICICI Bank's Halasur investments. "The accused used fake
holders can either assign equal prior- branch and sent 18 fabricated court documents to convince the victim
ity to all four nominees or allocate spe- orders between September 19, 2024, about the legitimacy of the invest-
cific shares. If priority is assigned, the and February 12, 2025, directing the ments," said an officer from
nomination will be effective in favor of release of money from accounts frozen Shakespeare Sarani PS.
only one nominee based on the order over cyber crime and betting investi- The victim made payments in multiple
mentioned. gations. instalments from 2021, but neither
Officials emphasized that the amend- The scam came to light when the bank received returns nor recovered her
ments have no link with reducing gov- raised suspicion and filed a complaint, principal amount, prompting her to file
ernment stake or the privatisation of leading to their arrest. Investigations a complaint.
public sector banks. revealed the entire operation was or- A case has been registered under IPC
chestrated to manipulate frozen sections 120B (criminal conspiracy),
Three Arrested for Using cybercrime-linked funds. 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of
Fake Court Orders to De- trust), 467 (forgery of valuable secu-
Bank Relationship Man- rity), 468 (forgery for the purpose of
fraud Bank of Rs 1.3 Crore cheating), and 471 (using forged docu-
ager Accused of Cheating
Three individuals have been arrested ment as genuine).
by the cyber crime police for allegedly Client Out of Rs 1.1 Crore
fabricating court orders to siphon off Police at Shakespeare Sarani police Citi and SBI Partner to of-

fer $295 Million Social
SBI's CS Setty Elected Chairman of Indian Banks' As- Loan Facility for Small
sociation
Farmers
The managing committee of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) has elected
State Bank of India (SBI) and Citi have
CS Setty, Chairman of State Bank of India (SBI), as its new Chairman.
jointly announced a $295 million social
In a statement, the IBA confirmed that Union Bank of India MD A loan facility under Citi's Trade & Work-
Maninekhalai, Punjab & Sind Bank MD Swarup Kumar Saha, and Bank of ing Capital Solutions platform, aimed
Bahrain & Kuwait BSC's Madhav Nair were elected as Deputy Chairmen. at supporting smallholder farmers in
Additionally, B Ramesh Babu, MD of Karur Vysya Bank, has been appointed India.
as the honorary secretary. Earlier this month, Atul Kumar Goel, former According to a release by SBI, the fa-
Managing Director of Punjab National Bank, was appointed as the CEO of cility will be used to finance its Kisan
IBA, succeeding Sunil Mehta. Credit Card loan portfolio, improving
The appointments mark a new leadership phase for the association as it agricultural productivity and financial
seeks to steer India's banking industry through evolving challenges and re- inclusion for small farmers.
forms. "Limited income and restricted access

6 | 2025 | MAY | BANKING FINANCE