Russia pulls up ICICI Bank over reporting norms

ICICI Bank''s Russian arm has been warned by the authorities for violating the country''s anti-money laundering laws. The bank was earlier pulled up by Hong Kong authorities. These disclosures have been made by the bank in its filings with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). The prosecutor''s office in Borovsk District of Russia conducted an on-site inspection of ICICI Bank Eurasia LLC and issued a warning to ICICI Bank Eurasia LLC for some violations detected. These violations pertained to delayed reporting on transactions under obligatory supervision, including a cash transaction, and errors in the matters reported to the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring during 2005 and up to March 31, 2006 and were contrary to the requirements under the Russian legislation on anti-money laundering. All such findings of the prosecutor''s office were based on the previous findings of the Central Bank of Russia audit which was conducted in April-May 2006.