CBI again raids several branches of UCO Bank to probe IMPS Scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently searched 67 locations in seven cities located in Rajasthan and Maharashtra. The search aimed to investigate suspicious Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions, which are estimated to be around Rs 820 crore, across multiple UCO Bank accounts.

CBI again raids several branches of UCO Bank to probe IMPS Scam

New Delhi: The CBI came into action after registering a case on November 21, 2023, on receiving a complaint from the UCO Bank. The PSU bank reported to the CBI that between November 10 and 11, 2023 IMPS inward transactions initiated from around 14,600 account holders of seven private banks were illegally posted in over 41,000 UCO Bank account holders.

This resulted in Rs 820 crore being credited into the UCO Bank accounts without actual debiting from the originating banks. Numerous account holders from seven banks including IDFC First Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank, Suryoday Small Finance Bank, Fincare Small Finance Bank, and Utkarsh Small Finance have allegedly exploited this situation, making wrongful gains by withdrawing funds through various banking channels, as per the information.

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Out of these transactions involving about Rs 820 crore, Rs 664 crore has been recovered by the bank by marking lien in the accounts and Rs 156 crore was the outstanding recovery as of November 16, last year, the bank told the CBI.

According to the CBI FIR, two persons hired as engineers for Facility Management, hired by the bank to maintain its app, are suspected to have changed the port number of IMPS transactions in the production server without authorization from the UCO bank on November 8, 2023. Due to this, while, CBS has credited the account of the beneficiary, it sends the failed response to the IMPS switch through UNISER and Connect 24.

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