RBI slaps Rs 3 crore fine on Allahabad Bank, ICICI Bank for non-compliance of various norms

New Delhi: The Reserve Bank has imposed a fine of Rs 2 crore on Allahabad Bank for non-compliance of directions with regard to Nostro accounts, the state-owned lender said Tuesday. A Nostro account is an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank. Private sector lender ICICI Bank too has been slapped with a fine of Rs 1 crore for the delay in compliance with directions related to global messaging software Swift.

Allahabad Bank was fined for non-compliance of RBI directions dated 20 February, 2018 pertaining to the reconciliation of Nostro on real-time basis with immediate effect, as per a BSE filing. According to RBI directions, banks have to interpret real-time as T+1 for Nostro debits and T+5 for Nostro credits. The amount of penalty is not material considering the size of the bank, and necessary measures for compliance with the said RBI directions have been taken, Allahabad Bank added. In a separate filing to exchanges, ICICI Bank said: “The Banking Regulation Act, 1949, levied an aggregate penalty of Rs 10 million vide its order dated February 25, 2019. The penalty has been levied for delay in compliance with RBI’s directives on ‘Time-bound implementation and strengthening of Swift related controls.” Yes Bank also informed on Tuesday about a fine of Rs 1 crore for non-compliance of directions on Swift. The stock of Allahabad Bank was trading 4.10 percent up at Rs 52 on BSE; ICICI Bank was at Rs 362.45, up 2.53 percent. Yes Bank was trading down 0.21 percent at Rs 236.90. On Monday, a number of private as well as public sector banks informed about penalties levied on them by RBI for failing to comply with Swift software operating requirements.