Frame conduct rules for bank executives: Staff union

A bank union has demanded that the government frame conduct regulations in the wake of top bank executives getting caught in corruption cases and some escaping punishment.

"It is high time the government frames a set of rules and conduct regulations applicable to EDs (executive directors) and CMDs (chairman and managing directors) of banks. It is all the more necessary because banks deal with huge public money and important financial decisions are taken by them," C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary, All India Bank Employees' Association said.

"In a context where banks are facing huge bad loans, the accountability for the same at the top should be ensured," Venkatachalam said in a statement issued here citing the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against S.K. Jain, chairman and managing director of Syndicate Bank.

He said it is shameful that in the banking industry wherein more than one million employees and officers serve customers, such reports and instances bring disgrace to the entire banking fraternity.

According to him, corruption cases against top bank executives have been coming up now and then and many cases get hushed up.

"Some months ago, the news of open bribery against a top executive of the State Bank of India appeared in the press but, in the name of departmental action, the whole thing was hushed up," Venkatachalam said.

"In the case of United Bank of India, where there are reports of huge bad loans on account of wrongful decisions of the top management, the then CMD has been allowed to take voluntary retirement and nothing has been heard thereafter," he added.

"If there can be a rule for the entire staff in banks, why not for the top executives? What is sauce for the goose must be for the gander too," he said.