PNB to tighten system, processes for lending

Teams to be set up for appraisal, monitoring of credit disbursal

Hit hard by the Rs 14,000-crore scam, PNB has decided to tighten loan disbursement and set up a monitoring mechanism to check loan slippages and fraud.

Some of the ideas being considered include having a separate pre-sanction appraisal and post-sanction monitoring teams for credit disbursal to ensure better governance and transparency, official sources said.

A new monitoring group will be set up to keep track of whether cash flow from projects is being used to repay bank loans and that there are no slippages, sources said, adding that a separate vertical to be created for stressed asset recovery.

This will be tried out as a pilot in some branches before a roll out nationally in the next six months, the sources said.

These changes are being made as part of Mission Parivartan drive which the bank has embarked on earlier this week.

In a bid to improve customer convenience, the sources said, automating customer response mechanism will also be implemented soon so as to ensure timely intervention and evaluate performance on timely resolution of customer disputes and complaints across branches. The bank is actively looking to leverage benefits of emerging technology including artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics both from a greater control over the audit process as well as providing a one stop suite of financial services with a single touch point, they said.

Billionaire jeweller designer Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connivance

with certain bank officials allegedly cheated the PNB of Rs 12,968 crore through fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).

A Mumbai branch of Punjab National Bank had issued as many as 1,590 letters of undertaking (LoUs) fraudulently for the group of companies belonging to Nirav Modi since March 2011. Different investigating agencies, including CBI and Enforcement Directorate, are probing the fraud, dubbed as the biggest banking scam in the country.