Shares of IDFC First Bank Ltd., the Mumbai-based private lender, dropped as much as 20% on Monday, February 23. This decline followed the announcement of a fraud worth ₹590 crore on Sunday. It marks the largest single-day fall for the stock since March 2020. In the first few minutes of the trading session, 3.17 crore shares of the lender changed hands in a block deal.
IDFC First Bank stock drop 16%
This represented 0.4% of the total outstanding equity and brought the total transaction value to ₹236 crore. As per exchange filing, the bank received a request from a Haryana Government department to close its account and transfer its funds to another bank. During this process, discrepancies were observed in the amount mentioned compared to the account balance.
The issue relates to the lender’s branch in Chandigarh. The bank clarified that this sum not affect other customers and that the impact depend on further information, claims validation, recoveries, and the legal recovery process.
Investigation ongoing, net profit matters occurs
Four officials connected to this matter have been suspended by the lender while the investigation is ongoing. This sum is significant because the lender reported a net profit of ₹503 crore for the December quarter. It mean that the amount involved exceeds the net profit for an entire quarter.
In its filing earlier on Sunday, IDFC First Bank said it is working to appoint an external agency for a forensic audit. In a separate disclosure, the bank announced it selected KPMG to conduct an independent forensic audit for this matter.
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