Shares of IndusInd Bank, Bandhan Bank and State Bank of India fell like a deck of cards after leaks from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) indicated that almost all Indian banks could be part of the suspicious transactions.
Between 2010 and 2017, several Indian banks regardless of ownership (public, private and foreign) helped facilitate transactions reported by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury for alleged money laundering , terrorism, drug trafficking and financial fraud, the latest leaks suggest.
FinCEN archives so far have established sender-receiver connections for 406 transactions involving major banks, including the country’s largest State Bank of India. According to the leaks, Indian banks received $ 482,181,226 from outside the country and transferred $ 406,278,962 from India. These transactions were red flagged to the US authorities. READ DETAILS HERE
The International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) obtained the top secret SAR or Suspicious Activity Reports, valued at more than $ 2 trillion globally. These transactions are not absolute proof of fraud or proof of nefarious activity, but are flagged by US authorities as suspicious.
While the data dump is available on the organization’s website, it has so far meticulously tracked 18,153 transactions totaling $ 35 billion, in which links have been established between the sending and beneficiary banks. The transactions took place between 2000 and 2017.
Among Nifty Bank constituents, IndusInd Bank fell 8.3 percent to hit an intraday low of Rs 562 per share. Additionally, Bandhan Bank sank 7%, RBL Bank (6.6%), Punjab National Bank (5.6%) and IDFC First Bank (6.4%). Other than that, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank, SBI, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were down between 0.3% and 4.5% at 2:45 pm. By comparison, the Nifty50 index was down 2 percent, or 222 points, to a level of 11,283. The index eventually closed 2.46 percent lower.
At the index level, Nifty Bank closed 3.36 percent lower. Meanwhile, the Nifty Private Bank index and the Nifty PSU banking index closed 3.7% and 4.39% lower, respectively.
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