Case Brief
What Happened
The Reserve Bank of India imposed monetary penalties on ING Vysya Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd. under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. The penalties were for contravention of RBI directions on KYC norms, AML standards, combating financing of terrorism, and PMLA-related compliance. RBI cited failures including inadequate documentation for opening accounts, weak customer identification, failure to examine entity control structures, failure to identify beneficial/natural persons behind entities, ineffective enhanced due diligence, incorrect risk categorisation, and delayed filing of Suspicious Transaction Reports. After issuing show-cause notices and considering the banks’ written and oral submissions, RBI concluded that the violations were established and imposed penalties of Rs 55 lakh and Rs 30 lakh respectively.