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A surprising mistake has come to light in Karnataka Bank, one of the oldest banks of the country. Rs 1 lakh crore was accidentally deposited in a closed savings account of the bank.
New Delhi. Imagine if Rs 1 lakh crore suddenly comes to your closed bank account, surely you too will be surprised. Something similar happened in Karnataka Bank, where such a huge amount was transferred to a closed account by mistake. This was not a scam, but a ‘fat finger error’ i.e. a typing mistake. The amount was returned within 3 hours, but the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is unhappy with this transaction. The question is, how did such a big mistake happen and where did the bank’s monitoring system go wrong?
This incident happened in August 2023, but now RBI has started taking a strict look at it. Due to a technical glitch, a bank employee entered such a huge amount by mistake. However, this entry was reversed within about 3 hours, so the bank did not suffer any financial loss.
What is the whole matter?
On August 9, 2023, at 5:17 pm, Rs 1 lakh crore was transferred to a dorm account of the bank. This entry was reverted at 8:09 pm. But the surprising thing is that it took 6 months for this mistake to reach the bank’s board, i.e. in March 2024, it was placed before the Risk Management Committee.
RBI questions
Now this matter is under the investigation of RBI. The Reserve Bank is trying to understand how such a big mistake happened in the internal system and risk management of the bank. If this transaction had happened in an active account, the bank could have suffered a huge loss. After this incident, the bank started investigation and 4 to 5 senior officers were removed. Also, the IT system of the bank was audited so that such mistake does not happen again in future.
bank statement
Karnataka Bank said, “This is an old operational issue which was identified and rectified in time. The bank did not suffer any financial loss and this information has been given to the regulator.”
At present RBI is monitoring this matter and has sought a detailed report from the bank. This incident shows that even a small technical mistake can create a big risk in the financial system.
