The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fined two leading banks for violating regulatory compliances. While Punjab National Bank (PNB) was slapped a penalty of Rs 1.8 crore, ICICI Bank was imposed a fine of Rs 30 lakh.

PNB was found guilty of contravening provisions of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, related to pledge of shares by it, the RBI said in a statement.

PNB, according to the RBI, had held shares in borrower companies, as pledgee, of an amount exceeding 30% of paid-up share capital of those companies.  

After going through the submissions given by the bank, RBI was convinced that the violation called for penalty.

In the case of ICICI Bank, the RBI said that after conducting a statutory inspection for supervisory evaluation of the bank, it found non-compliance with directions related to levy of charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in saving accounts.

The RBI, however, made it clear that in both the cases, penalties were levied on deficiencies in regulatory compliances and it was not a pronunciation on the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the banks with their respective customers.