The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed monetary penalties totaling ?2.52 crore on five major banks—ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), IDBI Bank, and Bank of Baroda (BoB)—for various regulatory non-compliances identified during recent supervisory evaluations.

Penalties and Violations

ICICI Bank – Rs.97.80 lakh

ICICI Bank received the highest penalty of Rs.97.80 lakh for multiple lapses, including:

• Failure to report a cybersecurity incident to the RBI within the stipulated timeframe.
• Inadequate implementation of alert systems for specific account categories.
• Issuing credit card bills or statements to some customers but still levying late payment charges on them. 

Axis Bank – Rs.90.92 lakh

Axis Bank was fined Rs. 90.92 lakh for non-compliance with several RBI directives, such as:

• Failure to preserve customer identification records and addresses in certain cases.
• Persistent calls to some customers by recovery agents without appropriate behavior.
• Failure to obtain declarations from customers at the time of opening current accounts. 
• Bank of Baroda (BoB) – Rs.61.40 lakh

BoB was penalized Rs. 61.40 lakh for:

• Non-compliance with RBI directions related to financial services provided by banks, customer service, and interest rates on deposits.
• Failure to ensure that no non-cash incentives were paid by an insurance company to its staff involved in insurance corporate agency services.
• Not crediting interest at the prescribed intervals to certain inoperative, dormant, or frozen savings deposit accounts. 

Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) – Rs.31.80 lakh

BoM faced a penalty of Rs.31.80 lakh due to:

• Non-adherence to regulatory requirements for several deposit accounts opened using Aadhaar and one-time password (OTP) based e-KYC in a non-face-to-face mode.

IDBI Bank – Rs. 31.80 lakh

IDBI Bank was fined Rs. 31.80 lakh for:

• Charging interest at rates higher than the applicable rates under the interest subvention scheme for short-term loans for agriculture and allied activities availed through Kisan Credit Cards (KCC).

RBI’s Stance

The RBI clarified that these penalties are based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and are not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their customers.