India’s State-run banks report frauds of over $13 b in six months

NEW DELHI (Reuters): India’s State-run banks reported fraud worth Indian Rs. 957.6 billion ($13.34 billion) in the first six months of the fiscal year 2019/20 ending in March, the Finance Minister told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The number of fraud cases touched 5,743 during the April-September period.

“Government has taken comprehensive measures to curb the incidence of fraud in banks,” India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Upper House of Parliament.

The measures included the freezing of 338,000 bank accounts of inoperative companies in the last two financial years and an enactment of a law with a provision to confiscate the property of economic offenders.