44 Indian banks named in leaked FinCEN documents

At least 44 Indian banks, including the country’s largest lender by assets State Bank of India, were reportedly involved in global suspicious transactions that were revealed in leaked suspicious activity reports, or SARs, filed by global banks with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, The Indian Express reported Sept. 24.

Indian banks were linked to over 2,000 suspicious transactions valued at over US$1 billion between 2011 and 2017, the newspaper reported. FinCEN’s records show that Indian banks mentioned in the set of SARs also include Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd.

Punjab National Bank reportedly was connected to the most number of SARs with 290 transactions, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank with 268 transactions and HDFC Bank with 253 transactions. Media reports had revealed that the SARs were part of the estimated US$2 trillion potentially corrupt transactions in over 2,000 leaked SARs filed by global banks with FinCEN.

Source: SPGGlobal.com