IMPS transaction fraud: Over 90% of money recovered, actions on to recover rest of money, says UCO Bank MD

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State-run UCO Bank has recovered more than 90 per cent of the “erroneous credits” which certain account holders of the bank had received via Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) last year and actions are on to recover the rest of the money, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ashwani Kumar said on Friday.

Certain accountholders of the Kolkata-based bank in November last year had received a total of around ₹820 crore “erroneous credits” via IMPS. Certain transactions, initiated by accounts holders of other banks, had resulted in credit to the account holders of UCO Bank without actual receipt of money from these banks during November 10-13, 2023 due to an internal technical issue.

“Around 90 per cent of the money is already recovered. Only ₹88 crore is left out. Rest is in the process of recovering,” Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of the 17th Banking Colloquium, organised by CII.

On by what time the bank expects to recover the rest of the money, Kumar said, “I cannot predict the behaviour of the customers involved. All these accounts have already been termed as NPAs. We have informed the CBI. Investigations are on. Recovery actions are on.”

The bank had clarified that the incident had happened due to an internal technical issue, and there was no issue with the IMPS platform. IMPS is an instant interbank electronic fund transfer service through mobile phones and internet banking. It allows individuals to send and receive money instantly using their mobile phones or internet banking facilities.

WRONGFUL GAINS

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) swung into action after registering a case on November 21, 2023, on a complaint received from UCO Bank. The bank had reported to the CBI that between November 10 and 11, 2023 IMPS inward transactions initiated from around 14,600 account holders of seven private banks were wrongfully posted in the accounts of over 41,000 UCO Bank account holders.

The CBI found that several of the account holders had made “wrongful gains” by withdrawing money from the UCO Bank by using various banking channels.

Last December, CBI sleuths conducted searches at as many as 13 locations involving that of private individuals and UCO Bank’s officials in Kolkata and Mangalore. Extensive search operations were also carried out in Rajasthan and Pune.

The investigative agency conducted another round of searches in March this year at 67 locations in seven cities in Rajasthan and Maharashtra to probe the suspicious IMPS transactions.