S R Batliboi & Co resigns as statutory auditor for IndusInd Bank

IndusInd Bank has appointed Haribhakti & Co as statutory auditor for FY20, subject to RBI nod

Chartered accountancy firm S R Batliboi & Co has resigned as statutory auditor of the private sector lender IndusInd Bank. IndusInd Bank has appointed Haribhakti & Co as statutory auditor for the financial year 2019-20, subject to approval from the Reserve Bank of India and shareholders. 

In June, RBI banned audit firm SR Batliboi & Co, member of global auditing firm EY, for one year from auditing bank books, after the central bank found lapses in the books certified okay by the company. In a filing with BSE, the bank said: “We wish to inform that S R Batliboi & Co tendered their resignation as statutory auditor of the bank with effect from July 10.” 

The bank said the RBI, under Enforcement Action Framework, had decided not to approve S R Batliboi & Co for carrying out statutory audit assignments in commercial banks starting from April 1.

The said intimation (about resignation) had inadvertently remained to be informed to the stock exchanges on July 10. The central bank had found huge divergence in bad debt reported by banks for 2015-16, particularly in the case of Axis Bank and YES Bank. Both books were audited by Viren Mehta, partner at Batliboi.