On Wednesday, The Reserve Bank of India imposed Rs 1.5 crore penalty on each three banks, Dena Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Maharashtra for the violation of Know Your Customers / Anti Money Laundering norms.

The three banks in aggregate have to pay Rs 4.5 crore fine.

“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 and its customers,” it said.

“With more complaints and involvement of other banks coming to light, a wider thematic review was conducted and in all 12 branches of 11 public sector banks were covered,” it said.

“The scrutiny or thematic review looked into the modus operandi of the alleged frauds involving accounts of certain organisations in these banks, deficiencies or irregularities while opening Fixed Deposits (FDs) and extending Overdraft (OD) facility there against,” it said.

“After considering the facts of each case and individual bank’s reply, as also, personal submissions, information submitted and documents furnished, the RBI came to the conclusion that some of the violations of serious nature were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty on three banks, namely, BoM, Dena Bank and OBC,” it said.

“Failure on the part of these banks to take timely remedial measures had aggravated the seriousness of the contraventions and its impact,” it said.