United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), the umbrella body of nine trade unions, has demanded a thorough Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) probe into the recent banking scams.

The unions also demanded that the Centre take steps to restore investor confidence in public sector banks. “We are demanding a detailed JPC probe into the recent Punjab National Band (PNB) fraud committed by two diamond traders and then fled the country. The goverment should set up a JPC probe as had been done after the Harshad Mehta scam in 1992,” Siddhartha Khan, the West Bengal convenor of UFBU told reporters during a news conference here on Monday.

Khan alleged that the banking regulator RBI had failed in having the right control or supervision to prevent occurrence of these scams. Moreover, the lower level employees were being made scapegoats. “The top level employees should also be probed. It is only the lower level employees and clerks who are being made a scapegoat in these bank fraud cases,” he further added.

All the nine trade unions are also planning to organise a rally on March 21 in front of the Parliament highlighting issues plaguing the banking sector that include rising levels of NPAs and increasing incidence of scams.

The UFBU has also opposed the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017, in which the ‘bail-in’ clause puts the depositors’ money at a risk. “Nearly, Rs 80,00,000 crore of savings in public sector banks are at risk with the proposed bail-in clause in the FRDI Bill,” he said.

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