SBI denies channelising black money during demonetisation

State Bank of India’s Bareilly branch was alleged to have opened 2,000 accounts to channelise black money during demonetisation period. However, SBI denied stating that the accounts were opened duly after confirming KYC norms. Moreover, during demonetisation, all large cash deposit transactions were monitored and suspicious ones were submitted by the bank, which is done on a regular basis.

Earlier, CBI had registered FIR against SBI's top officials for the conspiracy and conducted surprised visits at the Civil Lines branch in Bareilly in January 2017. CBI had detected nearly Rs 8 crore worth of old notes that were deposited in bank accounts, including nearly 1518 FDs, 667 savings bank accounts,53 current accounts, 94 Jan Dhan, 50 PPF accounts, etc. Nearly 794 transactions were deposits above Rs 1 lakh and were alleged to have been opened by the top officials. SBI officially announced that during November 10 and November 24, 2016, SBI had opened more than 2400 accounts, of which nearly 77% accounts were not opened as means for cash funding. The accounts included salary accounts for Indian Railway employees and other PPF accounts.

Some 260-plus dormant accounts, i.e. accounts with no activity for a long time except for posting of interest, got activated and customers deposited SBN (specified bank notes) after demonetisation. In the dormant accounts, no specific activation is required while depositing money, but requires the same while withdrawing.