The Punjab National Bank on Tuesday got rapped on its knuckles by market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for its tardiness in complying with various mandatory norms in the wake of the Nirav Modi fraud.
In a warning letter addressed to PNB’s Company Secretary Balbir Singh, Sebi noted that there were delays of 1-6 days by PNB in making disclosures to the stock exchanges pertaining to the complaints or reports filed with Reserve Bank of India and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The letter specifically points to the disclosures belatedly made by PNB to stock exchanges during February and March this year “regarding certain fraudulent transactions with respect to Nirav Modi group, Gitanjali group and others”. This, according to the regulator, flouted several regulations complied under SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.
Sebi further claimed that “PNB has not made any provision /disclosure with respect to fraud of Rs 280 crore in the financial statements for the quarter ended December 2017”, which went against Clause I of Part A of Schedule IV read with Regulation 33(1)(e) of SEBI (Usting Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.
“The aforesaid non-compliances are viewed seriously and PNB is hereby warned and advised to be cautious in future to ensure compliance with all applicable provisions of the SEBI LODR (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations,” added the warning letter, which has been posted by the bank on stock exchanges as part of regulatory filing.
This development comes on the heels of PNB reporting the highest quarterly loss ever posted by an Indian bank and two CBI charge-sheets featuring its former MD & CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian along with three other top officials in connection with the Rs 13,000 crore LoU scam. Bad news indeed comes in threes.
