Money laundering sting: HDFC Bank says will probe matter

HDFC Bank Thursday said it would investigate if regulations on Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policy were violated. The bank was responding to a sting operation by Cobrapost , which revealed that officials at ICICI Bank , Axis Bank and HDFC Bank were helping launder black money into legal income.

Like ICICI Bank which issued a press release a short while ago, HDFC Bank too has not denied the allegations outright. In fact, both press releases read somewhat similar, expressing concern at the report, and assuring stakeholders of commitment to high standards of business conduct.

Here is what the HDFC Bank press release says:

"We are concerned at the allegations that have appeared in the media.  The matter is being investigated on top priority.  The bank has a well-defined Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) policy which contains procedures and controls to identify and prevent the types of transactions mentioned in the Cobrapost press release.  

Segregation of frontline sales activities and back office operations and post transaction monitoring processes are in place to ensure independent checks & balances and adherence to all the laid down policies and procedures of the bank.  Any deviation is viewed very seriously and stringent action is taken both at an organizational and employee level.

We would like to assure our customers and other stakeholders that the bank has always adhered to the highest standards of compliance and corporate governance and will continue to do so.”

And this is what ICICI Bank said a short while ago:

"ICICI Group conducts its business with the highest level of compliance to legal and regulatory requirements.

All employees of the Group are trained and required to adhere strictly to the Group Code of Conduct, including AML and KYC norms. We have demonstrated our commitment to this by following a zero tolerance policy towards any violation.

We are deeply concerned with the media reports.

We want to assure our customers and all our other stakeholders that we are committed towards adherence to the high standards of business conduct, which is expected of us.

We have constituted a high level inquiry committee to investigate into the matter and submit its findings in 2 weeks."