A recent press report said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charges against executives at several financial services firms, including Life Insurance Corporation of India and Punjab National Bank, in a bribes-for-loans case.
The CBI has filed charges of accepting bribes against the then-secretary of top state-run insurer Life Insurance Corp (LIC), then-chief executive of LIC Housing Finance, a former general manager of Bank of India and a former deputy general manager of Punjab National Bank.
According to the CBI reports the executives at some companies have received bribes from Money Matters Financial Services, a firm cited as the mediator on the deals resulting in heavy loans to the booming infrastructure sector like builders of dams, power plants, energy equipment makers and property developers. Police also filed charges against the chairman of a Mumbai-based private sector firm for paying bribe, but did not identify the company.
Reports said that India was ranked 87th in Transparency International’s 2010 ranking of nations based on the perceived level of corruption. The police statement did not name the executives charged, but it said the charges were related to cases that had been registered in November 2010.