International rating agency Moody's has downgraded Punjab National Bank's (PNB) rating to Ba1/NP from Baa3/P-3, owing to massive Nirav Modi fraud case. According to a PTI report, it kept the rating outlook as stable, but also downgraded the bank's baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA to b1 from ba3. The downgrade throws light on the weak internal controls, given the fact that fraud transactions went undetected for a number of years.

In February, the bank announced that it had discovered some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions amounting to Rs 11,390, billion. Post the announcement of the fraudulent transactions; Moody's initiated a review of the bank's ratings in February, which has been completed now.

The bank recently reported a net loss of Rs 13,416.91 crore for the fourth quarter ending March 2018, on the back of Nirav Modi scam. According to the statement issued by the company, the loss for the three months to 31 March came in at Rs 13,417 crore compared with a net profit of Rs 262 crore a year ago. Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) deteriorated massively to 18.38 percent of total loans as on March-end 2018 as compared to 12.11 percent of total loans in December 2017. The total income for Q4 also slipped to Rs 12,945.68 crore from Rs 14,989.33 crore in the year-ago period.

(With inputs from PTI)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2018 03:49 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).