S P Talwar May Be Fraud Board Chief

Reserve Bank of India deputy governor S P Talwar, who is slated to step down on June 30, is expected to head the fraud board of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), currently chaired by former RBI deputy governor S S Tarapore.

Second deputy governor Jagdish Capoor, who is also set to hang up boots in end-June, may head the RBI Recruitment Board as the current chief's term will expire soon.

The fraud board, chaired by Tarapore since its inception about three years back, is being reconstituted. The panel's jurisdiction has also been widened from only public sector banks to all banks and financial institutions.

The CBI wing, which is housed at RBI's office on Mint Street, probes frauds in the financial sector. It has thus far handled old cases involving Indian Bank, United Bank of India among others.

The Advisory Board on Bank Frauds (ABBF) was set up in February 1997. It was redesigned as the Central Advisory Board on Bank Frauds (CABBF) on March 1, 1999.

The board takes up bank fraud cases involving officers at the general manager level and above, referred directly or through the finance ministry.

The decisions and directions of the board on the referred cases would enable banks to enhance staff accountability and prevent the occurrence of frauds.

The board was set up at a time when hounded by investigating agencies such as the CBI and Central Vigilance Commission, banks executives virtually stopped sanctioning credit which compounded the woes of the sector which was already plagued with tardy credit offtake.

The brief of the board is to look into specific cases of banking fraud involving executives before passing on the cases to investigative agencies.