Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has fined ICICI Bank Rs 58.9 crore for violating norms relating to sale of government securities from the held-to-maturity category of its bonds portfolio. According to reports, this is the highest penalty imposed by RBI on a bank for a single incident.

According to the release, issued by RBI, the penalty on ICICI Bank is because of 'non-compliance with directions issued by RBI on direct sale of securities from its HTM portfolio and specified disclosure in this regard. This action is based on the deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.

On Wednesday, ICICI Bank in a press statement released gave a clean chit to CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar, and said that, there was no question of favouritism, nepotism or conflict of interest in granting loans to Videocon Industries or any other company. The bank urged public not to be led by these rumours, which are being spread to malign the Bank and its top management.

Last week, the country's largest bank was engulfed in a controversy, post a blogpost that was circulated on social media, highlighting a possible nexus between Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar’s NuPower Renewables firm and Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot and thereby ICICI bank’s involvement in saving Videocon Group from debt defaults.

ICICI Bank stock is currently trading at Rs 278,90, almost 2 percent down on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 29, 2018 12:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).