Nineteen banks in India have been fined by the Reserve Bank of India, for amounts ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for blatantly violating the guidelines prescribed for derivative trading despite strict surveillance by the regulator. This is not the first time such violations have taken place, nor will this be the last. The token penalty may not be commensurate with the huge profits that the banks may have made as a result of such violations. This is a great disincentive to the other banks, mostly in the public sector, that seem to have strictly gone by the rule book.
S Ravindranath, Coimbatore
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