Tag: punjab national bank

PNB puts up National Steel & Agro Industries for sale to recover Rs 200cr dues, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has put up a Madhya Pradesh-based steel and agriculture company for sale to recover its outstanding of nearly Rs 200 crore. The National Steel and Agro Industries Ltd has a balance outstanding of Rs 199.90 crore to the bank.

“We intend to place the account for sale to ARCs/NBFCs/other banks/FIs, on the terms and conditions stipulated in the bank’s policy, in line with the regulatory guidelines,” PNB said in an auction notification.

The lender has set the reserve price (on cash basis) at Rs 95 crore for the sale process.

For the prospective bidder to expedite the process of due diligence exercise and for verification purposes of the buyer, the bank said it will make all possible efforts to bring copies of documents at one place.

However, the bank at its sole discretion may withdraw the account offered for sale, without assigning any reasons, it added.

PNB has set December 8 as the last date for completion of due diligence exercise. The last date of submission of binding bids is December 9, while the date for opening of bids is fixed as December 10, 2021. PTI KPM MR MR



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CBI books 7 for Rs 73 cr fraud at PNB, Indian Bank, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi, The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against seven accused, including private firms, for perpetrating a fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Allahabad Bank in credit facilities and term loans to the tune of nearly Rs 73 crore during 2013.

The accused were identified as S.R. Alcobev Pvt. Ltd, New Industrial Estate, Jagatpur, Cuttack, its Managing Director Ranjan Kumar Padhi and Director Saina Kar; Naina Devi Suppliers Pvt. Ltd, Sainagoue Street, Kolkata, West Bengal (Corporate Guarantor), Chandraghanta Iron and Steel Traders Pvt. Ltd., Shyam Bazar Street, Kolkata, West Bengal (Corporate Guarantor), Brewforce Technologies, East Patel Nagar, New Delhi or Dehradun, Uttarakhand (Supplier) and a civil contractor named Sukanta Kumar Lenka, a resident of Cuttack.

According to the CBI, there is involvement of unknown public servants of Punjab National Bank, among others.

“The accused committed a fraud at Punjab National Bank, main branch, Buxi Bazar, Cuttack and Allahabad Bank, Bhubaneswar branch, in a matter of credit facilities or term loans to the tune of around Rs 73 crore (Rs 40 crore by PNB and Rs 33 crore by Indian Bank, formerly Allahabad Bank) during 2013,” the probe agency said in a statement.

After disbursal of the loan proceeds, the borrowers and guarantors allegedly violated the terms and conditions of the sanction and they neither procured the machineries nor deposited the instalments in time and the account turned into a non-performing asset (NPA).

It was further alleged that the accused, including promoters, directors, guarantors and suppliers, had misappropriated and diverted the loan proceeds with the ulterior motive to defraud the banks to the tune of nearly Rs 140.48 crore (principal amount plus interest as on September 30, 2021).

The CBI conducted searches at the premises of the accused situated at Cuttack (Odisha) and Dehradun (Uttarakhand).

“Further probe is on,” it added.



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Punjab National Bank denies any data theft, system breach, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Punjab National Bank on Monday said there had been no breach of its systems or pilferage of personal data of customers and account holders. The state-run lender, in a statement, said it had thoroughly checked its systems and that the reported attempt of perpetrator was monitored and checked.

“PNB has implemented stringent security controls in all our ICT (information and communications technology) systems,” said the bank, adding that it has deployed data leak prevention solutions which prevent any unauthorised data to be sent through email.

Cyber security firm CyberX9 had said that a vulnerability in the server of Punjab National Bank exposed the personal and financial information of its about 180 million customers for about seven months and that the bank fixed the vulnerability when CyberX9 notified PNB through CERT-In and NCIIPC.

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No breach of systems and pilferage of any personal data: PNB

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Following several reports of vulnerability found in Punjab National Bank’s internal server, exposing personal and financial information of customers, the bank on Monday denied any breach of system and possibility of data exposure. The bank has deployed data leak prevention solutions that stops any unauthorized data to be sent through emails, it said.

“We have thoroughly checked our ICT systems those on Internet facing and operating in the background at PNB. There has been no breach of systems and pilferage of any personal data of any of our customers and account holders of PNB,” the bank said in a statement.

Read also – PNB server vulnerability may have exposed data of over 180 m customers: CyberX9

It added, “It is an established fact that hackers regularly attempt to penetrate every and all Internet facing systems anywhere in the world. PNB has implemented stringent security controls in all our ICT systems. The reported attempt of perpetrator was monitored and checked. All our critical ICT systems dealing with banking transactions are kept in secure zone, called DM zone with multiple layers of protection.”

CyberX9 report

The alleged vulnerability came into light, when cyber security firm CyberX9 published a blog post saying that apart from its 180 million customers, the glitch leaves access to confidential internal emails and logins of all strata of employees across branches and systems, including the CMD exposed by letting the hackers get the highest level of admin privilege in the affected server. It claimed that the vulnerability existed for at least seven months.

To this, PNB said that it had deployed a leak prevention solution controlling unauthorised data being sent over emails. Earlier, in a statement to PTI, the bank had said that the glitch was found and fixed; and no data was compromised.

“The said zone does not permit unauthorised access to any one, including internal staff. The ICT systems are monitored round the clock by competent staff at security operation centre. The data at rest and transit are encrypted using proprietary algorithms,” it said in its latest statement.

The bank is certified with International ISO 27001 best information security practices, validated minimum every year and as and when significant upgradation to the ICT systems is undertaken. These standards and best practices are also adopted in India.

“Our customers are very valuable to us. We assure our all customers that PNB, your bank, will strive hard to keep your personal data highly confidential meeting to best possible standards. Towards this, PNB will always be at the forefront to implement best available resources to implement the best security controls to secure the Information of our all customers,” PNB said.

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Vulnerability in PNB server exposed customer data for about seven months: CyberX9

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A vulnerability in the server of Punjab National Bank allegedly exposed the personal and financial information of its about 180 million customers for about seven months, according to cyber security firm CyberX9.

CyberX9 has claimed that the vulnerability provided access to the entire digital banking system of PNB with administrative control.

Meanwhile, the bank has confirmed the glitch but denied any exposure of critical data due to the vulnerability.

PNB said, “customer data/applications are not affected due to this” and “server has been shut down as a precautionary measure.” “Punjab National Bank kept severely compromising the security of funds, personal and financial information of over 180 million (all) its customers for about the last 7 months. PNB only woke up and fixed the vulnerability when CyberX9 discovered the vulnerability and notified PNB through CERT-In and NCIIPC,” CyberX9 founder and MD Himanshu Pathak told PTI.

He said CyberX9 research team discovered a critical security issue in PNB, leading to admin access to internal servers hence exposing a massive number of banks’ systems nationwide open for cyber-attacks for the last about seven months.

Pathak said that vulnerability was found in an exchange server interconnected with other exchanges and shares all access — including access to all email addresses, which results in access to all email addresses.

“The vulnerability which we discovered was leading to the highest level of admin privilege in PNB’s exchange servers. If you gain access to Domain Controller through an exchange server, the doors are easily open to make any computer accessible in the network.

“These computers even include those that are being used in their branches and other departments,” Pathak said.

When contacted, PNB said, the server in which the vulnerability was found had no sensitive or critical data.

“The server wherein the vulnerability was reported, was being used as one of the multiple Exchange Hybrid servers used to route emails from On-prim to Office 365 Cloud. There is no sensitive/critical data in this server,” PNB said.

PNB denied CyberX9 claim on the impact of the vulnerability on customer’s data.

“The server is in a separate VLAN segment and customer data/applications are not affected due to this. Vulnerability assessments and penetration testing is done periodically by external Cert-in empanelled Information Security Auditors and the observations are complied with.

Now this server has been shut down as a precautionary measure,” PNB said.

According to CyberX9, the vulnerability was mitigated on November 19, and it reported the incident to Indian cyber security watchdog Cert-In and National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC).

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CyberX9, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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A vulnerability in the server of Punjab National Bank allegedly exposed the personal and financial information of its about 180 million customers for about seven months, according to cyber security firm CyberX9. CyberX9 has claimed that the vulnerability provided access to the entire digital banking system of PNB with administrative control.

Meanwhile, the bank has confirmed about the glitch but denied any exposure of critical data due to the vulnerability.

PNB said “customer data/applications are not affected due to this” and “server has been shut down as a precautionary measure.”

“Punjab National Bank kept severely compromising the security of funds, personal and financial information of over 180 million (all) its customers for about the last 7 months. PNB only woke up and fixed the vulnerability when CyberX9 discovered the vulnerability and notified PNB through CERT-In and NCIIPC,” CyberX9 founder and MD Himanshu Pathak told PTI.

He said CyberX9 research team discovered a very critical security issue in PNB which was leading to admin access to internal servers hence exposing a massive number of banks’ systems nationwide open for cyber-attacks for the last about seven months.

Pathak said that vulnerability was found in an exchange server which is interconnected with other exchanges and shares all access — including access to all email addresses which results in access to all email addresses.

“The vulnerability which we discovered was leading to the highest level of admin privilege in PNB’s exchange servers. If you gain access to Domain Controller through an exchange server then the doors very easily open to make any computer accessible in the network.

“These computers even include those that are being used in their branches and other departments,” Pathak said.

When contacted, PNB said the server in which the vulnerability was found had no sensitive or critical data.

“The server wherein the vulnerability was reported, was being used as one of the multiple Exchange Hybrid servers used to route emails from On-prim to Office 365 Cloud. There is no sensitive/critical data in this server,” PNB said.

PNB denied CyberX9 claim on impact of the vulnerability on customer’s data.

“The server is in a separate VLAN segment and customer data/applications are not affected due to this. Vulnerability assessments and penetration testing is done periodically by external Cert-in empanelled Information Security Auditors and the observations are complied with.

Now this server has been shut down as a precautionary measure,” PNB said.

According to CyberX9, the vulnerability was mitigated on November 19, and it reported the incident to Indian cyber security watchdog Cert-In and National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC). PTI PRS DP DRR DRR



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Punjab National Bank raises Rs 1,919 crore via bonds, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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New Delhi: State-owned Punjab National Bank on Thursday said it has raised Rs 1,919 crore by issuing Basel compliant bonds. The bank has issued and allotted Basel III compliant tier-II bonds at a coupon of 7.10 per cent per annum aggregating to Rs 1,919 crore on a private placement basis, it said in a BSE filing.

It has issued a total of 1,919 bonds under the issue.

Shares of PNB closed at Rs 41.70 apiece on BSE, up 2.58 per cent from the previous close.

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PNB Housing chief on Carlyle deal pull-out, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Pulling out from the Rs 4,000-crore Carlyle-led deal was a conscious choice of PNB Housing Finance as the company did not want to entangle in a protracted legal battle and lose focus on the lending business, its Managing Director and CEO Hardayal Prasad said.

Last month, the company said it has decided not to proceed with the Rs 4,000-crore capital infusion deal led by Carlyle as a legal battle will not be in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.

The deal was finalised on May 31. Soon after, it mired into a controversy with regards to the valuation of the shares being offered to the investors. Subsequently, the matter reached the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) after the intervention of markets regulator Sebi.

“If you look at it, there is nothing that we did wrong. We followed the policy of the Sebi, the LODR instructions, we tried to do everything. It was only a question of interpretation.

“But, it was looking like a long-drawn process due to hurdles in legal approvals,” Prasad told PTI in an interview.

He said the split verdict of the SAT also proves that it was a matter of interpretation only as the company’s contention was vindicated by one of the judges in the matter, reiterating: “I don’t think we did anything wrong”.

Prasad added that one of the judges, the presiding officer, gave the judgment in the company’s favour. “But, we are very clear that we don’t want any protracted legal battle. We want to concentrate on our work and go ahead.”

He said a significant amount of bandwidth is utilised when you are going to do it and it would have been a slightly long-protected legal battle.

“I am not in that business, we are in the business of lending, in the business of financing. What is the point in remaining distracted by these kinds of things. So, we decided that okay they are the regulator and we decided to go ahead with the pull-back (from the deal),” Prasad said.

After the split verdict of the SAT in August, Sebi had approached the Supreme Court. However, the apex court dismissed Sebi’s appeal in late October as it became infructuous when PNB Housing Finance said it will pull out from the deal.

The company has filed an application to withdraw its appeal to the Securities Appellate Tribunal.

Prasad said the company is much in the need of the desired capital and it will look for all the venues to raise money, be it through borrowings, qualified institutional placement (QIP), rights issues or preference issues.

“Whether we do it through borrowings or QIP, preferential issue, rights issue, any other things that we can do, we are keeping everything open and we will see to it and at the right time, we will approach the board to permit us to raise the money,” Prasad said.

He added that the company will continue to look for opportunities.

“We remain engaged with everybody. See how we can move forward in terms of capital raising. We require to raise the capital, despite a solid capital adequacy ratio, and the gearing position.

“But, we would still like to raise capital to enable us to grow even faster than we are growing,” he said.

Right now, all stakeholders of the company remain supportive of the company. They know that the capital is required, they know that the company has a great, bright future, Prasad added.

They have also seen that in the past nine quarters, there has been a slow and steady movement on a lot of fronts.

“So, we would do it, since they are all supportive and they understand that the company requires it. We will look at all options that are there in terms of raising the money,” Prasad said.

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) is the company’s promoter with a 32.6 per cent holding in the company.

On being asked what was PNB’s opinion on pulling out from the deal, he said: “We explained to them that this is the reason and we would like to pull back from the deal. Because of the protracted legal nature, it is not taking us anywhere and it is distracting the overall focus of the business.”

All of them agreed that this is the right thing to do, Prasad added.

In the second quarter ended September 2021, the company posted a net profit of Rs 235 crore, down by 25 per cent from a year ago, mainly on account of a fall in interest income and higher provisioning for bad loans.



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Why analysts see no upside in PNB stock despite 78% jump in Q2 net, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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NEW DELHI: Punjab National Bank (PNB) reported a 78 per cent surge in September quarter profit, in addition to a three-fold jump in June quarter profits. Analysts, however, see no further upside for the stock that has underperformed the market this year with a 21 per cent return.

Analysts said the surge in earnings was mainly led by a reversal in tax and noted that operating performance for the quarter was fairly weak, with pre-provision operating profit falling 27 per cent YoY due to a 25 per cent decline in net interest income (NII).

Slippages were elevated at about Rs 9,080 crore, which were 5.4 per cent of loans, even as higher recoveries and upgrades helped the bank report a 70 basis points fall in gross NPA at 13.6 per cent.

Motilal Oswal Securities noted that the bank’s domestic margins also fell 36 basis points sequentially to 2.45 per cent due to an interest reversal of Rs 620 crore and few corporate loans being repriced at lower rates. Fee income fell 21 per cent sequentially. “PNB’s asset quality remained largely stable despite elevated slippages, supported by higher recoveries and upgrades. However, the bank’s restructured portfolio increased to 3.1 per cent of loans, for which it is carrying mere 10 per cent provisions. Also, SMA overdue stood at 3.7 per cent of loans, making us watchful of PNB over the near term,” Motilal Oswal said.

Emkay Global has retained its sell call on the stock due to slower growth, ongoing concerns around asset quality and subpar return ratios when compared with other public sector banks. It has valued the stock at Rs 35. “Credit growth was weak at 3 per cent YoY but PNB expects the growth run rate to improve to 6-8 per cent YoY by the end of FY22, aided by healthy growth in retail and some back-end support from corporates as well. That said, we believe overall NIMs are likely to remain under pressure due to slower growth and interest reversals on NPAs,” Emkay said.

Edelweiss shared similar concerns. It said asset quality shows persistent challenges, with slippages in excess of 5 per cent (annualised) and SMA-2 + restructuring at 2 per cent level. Soft business momentum reflected in a 30 per cent YoY dip in core profitability. “Still evolving stress and low provision stock forebodes elevated credit costs going forward, keeping us on guard. High stress, lower buffer, challenges on business and risk of subsequent Covid waves indicate that transition will be arduous and normalisation is still awaited,” said the brokerage. It has a hold rating on the stock with a target of Rs 42.

PNB closed at Rs 42.10 a piece on Friday, suggesting no upside.



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Banks with 95% cards implement RBI order on recurring payments, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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MUMBAI: A month after the RBI’s fresh rules on mandates for recurring card payments kicked in, banks accounting for over 95% of credit cards in the market are compliant with the new system. Over 20 lakh e-mandates have been registered by cardholders with a host of merchants.

According to payment industry sources, the banks whose credit cards are eligible for new standing payment mandate include SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, American Express, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, HSBC, RBL Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Several banks have enabled the mandate for both debit cards as well as credit cards.

Automatic recurring payments also require the merchant to be on-boarded to the new e-mandate framework. The compliant businesses include most of the OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms, private life & general insurance companies, global IT giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and McAfee, as well as some edtech companies.

Interestingly, Indian cardholders who have registered with overseas service providers, having payment gateways abroad, are not subject to the new rules. This is because the RBI has no jurisdiction to impose second-factor authentication in those markets. It is up to the customer to disable international transactions on their cards.

What has facilitated the fast on-boarding of merchants is IT solutions like SI Hub developed by BillDesk and Mandate HQ developed by Razorpay. However, some domestic banks like Canara Bank & Punjab National Bank and Standard Chartered Bank were until last week in the process of making the necessary system changes.

According to the sources, card-based recurring transactions are 2.5% in terms of the number of transactions and 1.5% in terms of the value of the total card payments done in the country. On average, approximately 75% of domestic recurring transactions are of values of up to Rs 5,000. The corresponding figure for cross-border recurring transactions is approximately 85%.



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