Mumbai, 7 June (IANS). The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued a net discipline in its interim order against IndusInd Bank Limited, which has been replaced by an important reference to clarify the nature of the documents involved in the internal transaction of the bank.
The market regulator said that the word ‘board note’ used in its earlier order will now be read as ‘engagement note’.
This improvement has been done at a time when SEBI is investigating the accounting irregularities in private sector lender bank.
Earlier, the regulator mentioned that the global counseling firm KPMG was appointed by IndusInd Bank in February 2024 on the basis of ‘board note’.
However, it is now clear that the appointment of KPMG was actually based on an ‘engagement note’, a less impressive formal document that is commonly used to assign task to external advisors.
SEBI investigation has revealed that the former Chief Financial Officer of IndusInd Bank said in January 2024 that an advisor is being hired to assess the financial impact of already identified discrepancies.
KPMG later reported a financial loss of Rs 2,093 crore related to these issues.
SEBI found that the bank did not disclose stock exchanges of these conclusions by March 10, 2025, nor did the information until March 4, 2025 mark the unpublished price-sensitive data.
KPMG further discussed with bank officials to verify the numbers, including alleged specific accounting entries.
In his interim order, SEBI nominated four senior officials for his alleged roles in the case: Arun Khurana, former Executive Director and Deputy CEO; Sushant Sourav, Head of Treasury Operations; Rohan Jathanna, head of GMG operations; And Anil Marco Rao, Chief Administrative Officer for Consumer Banking Operations.
These individuals have been stopped from purchasing, selling or dealing with securities in any form until next notice.
Meanwhile, on Friday, RBI Deputy Governor J Swaminathan said that the position of IndusInd Bank is getting stable and ‘everything is on track more or less’.
RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra also commented that the bank has taken important steps to improve its accounting standards and is doing well overall.
-IANS
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