News Which May Cause Worry

RBI warns public against 'balance checking' software app-Times of India

Chennai, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday warned the general public that it has not developed any software application allowing a person to check balances in various bank accounts.

In a statement, the central bank said that it has come to its notice that an software application is doing rounds on WhatsApp purportedly to facilitate checking of balance in customers' bank accounts.

The software application has the RBI logo on it with the title 'All Bank Balance Enquiry No' and has listed several banks with either mobile number or call centre number.

Trader accuses officials of co-op bank of cheating

NASHIK: A Nashik Road businessman was allegedly cheated by the employees of a cooperative bank by opening an account in his name without his knowledge to take a loan of Rs 25 lakh on two occasions.

While the loan was repaid and the account closed, the account holder has accused senior officials of the bank of cheating him and lodged a complaint against them.

The Upnagar police have dispatched a notice to the bank seeking information on 11 different points.

Upnagar police officials said businessman A R Khan had some fixed deposits in his name and in the name of his family members at the Business Co-operative Bank. Four senior officials of the bank allegedly opened an account of 'loan against fixed deposits receipts' in his name without his knowledge.

Khan told the police that a loan of Rs 25 lakh was allegedly taken on May 11, 2001 and another of Rs 25 lakh on March 31, 2003. After he came to know recently of the account opened in his name without his consent, he sought details including the note of consent, promissory note, etc to the bank for opening the account.

He claimed the bank could provide none of the details and hence he approached the police station to lodge a complaint against the officials. "In cooperative banks, any proposal made has to be approved by the chairman and other directors on the board, before granting a loan. Thus, the senior officials are very much involved in the fraud," Khan told TOI. Senior inspector Ashok Bhagat of Upnagar police station said, "We have sent a notice to the bank to produce the documents of the said account to find out who had opened the account and the persons involved in facilitating the entire process of taking loans on two occasions and even closing the account."

"The transactions took place more than a decade back. Thus after checking the documents, we would come to know the persons including the director, manager, cashier, etc who facilitated the entire process of opening the account," Bhagat said.

Banking revival in India still a way off, says Standard & Poor’s-Hindu Business Line
12.04.2015

Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday said revival in private sector investments and credit growth, coupled with a reversal of non-performing loan ratios for India’s banks is likely to take time.

 

This is despite improving operating conditions because of a reform-minded government and increased elbow room for the central bank to lower interest rates, the global rating agency added.

 

Factors required

“We expect the pace of growth of stressed assets to fall because a substantial part of the stress has already been recognised,” said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Amit Pandey.

He said that any material recovery in corporate loan quality will require improvement in demand in India, deleveraging of corporate balance sheets, and resolution of problems in the infrastructure, metal and mining sectors, all of which will take time.

 

Satyam verdict announced: All you need to know about the Satyam fraud case-India Today

On Thursday, a special court in Hyderabad announced the verdict for the Satyam case in which B. Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., was sentenced to seven years' jail and fined Rs 5.5 crore.

Revealed in 2009, this scam is the biggest accounting fraud in the Indian corporate world till date. Along with Raju, nine others were also convicted. His younger brother, B. Rama Raju got the same sentenced of 7 years' jail time and Rs 5.5 crore fine. 

The other eight involved, namely Raju's youngest brother Suryanarayana Raju, Satyam's Chief Auditor V. Prabhakar Gupta, former Chief Financial Officer Vadlamani Srinivas, former PricewaterhouseCoopers' auditors S. Gopalakrishna and T. Srinivas, former Satyam accounts and auditors G. Ramakrishna, D. Venkatpathi Raju and C. Srisailam, were also sentenced to 7 years in jail. They have been fined Rs 25 lakhs each.
They were found guilty of forgery and falsification of accounts, while the Raju brothers had an additional charge of breach of trust. 

The scam came into light on January 7, 2009 when Ramalinga Raju confessed to manipulating his company's account books and inflating profits over many years. He was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Police's Crime Investigation Department two days later, along with others involved in the fraud.

Until then Satyam was a pioneer in India's Information Technology(IT) industry. A first of its kind, the incident shook the corporate world. Here's a timeline of the scam, listing everything you need to know about the case:

1987: Ramalinga Raju establishes Satyam computer Services Ltd.
1991: Satyam is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange
2006: The company's revenue crosses more than 1 billion USD. Raju becomes chairman of Nasscom
January 7, 2009: Ramalinga Raju resigns and discloses a Rs 7000 crore accounting fraud in balance sheets of cash which never existed in the company
January 8, 2009: Satyam's bank, Citibank freezes 30 of its accounts. Interim CEO Ram Mynampati says company may not be able to pay salaries due severe lack of cash funds. Satyam's auditor PwC also questioned
January 9, 2009: Ramalinga Raju and his younger brother B Rama Raju arrested by the police. Central government dismisses Satyam board, to appoint its own 10 directors
January 9, 2009: Satyam removed from Sensex and Nifty listings
February 2009: CBI takes over investigation, files 3 chargesheets by April
2010: Raju denies confession statement, says charges levelled by CBI are false
August 18, 2010: Supreme Court grants bail to Raju since CBI failed to file chargesheet on time
October 29, 2011: Supreme Court issues notice to cancel bail of those accused in Satyam case
March 21, 2012: Tech Mahindra announces merger with Satyam and introduces the new brand Mahindra Satyam
September 17, 2013: US court orders new proceedings regarding claims against Satyam.
July 16, 2014: Ramalinga Raju banned from market for 14 years by SEBI
December 23, 2014: Judge adjourns verdict citing voluminous documents
March 9, 2015: Special court adjourns verdict till April 9
April 9, 2015: All 10 accused found guilty of fraud