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Fraud, Ethics & Governance
A banker’s reflection on Central Bank of India v. Prabha Jain, 2025 INSC 95, where the Supreme Court held that a third-party challenge to sale deed and mortgage validity may still proceed before a civil court despite SARFAESI action. The case highlights the late claim trap, title litigation risk,…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
A banker’s reflection on the possession trap in property-backed lending—why title deeds, mortgages, MoDT clauses and tenant NOCs may still fail to protect recovery value if actual possession is unclear, disputed or difficult to enforce.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
A banker’s reflection on the Canara Bank specific performance case and why a property agreement, payment, and documentation are not enough unless the contract is lawful, enforceable, and capable of surviving judicial scrutiny.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
“Tareekh pe tareekh” is no longer just a famous line from Damini. For many litigants in India, it reflects the painful uncertainty of a justice system where cases may be listed but not heard. This article examines the hidden cost of unpredictable court listings, the accountability gap in judicial…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
How CRILC reporting, cheque deposits, and system processes can unintentionally delay default recognition in banks—especially during the critical March reporting cycle.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
How Section 94 IBC allows personal guarantors to trigger interim moratorium before visible default—and why banks must rethink recovery sequencing and inter-bank coordination.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Rings are the smallest form of gold collateral—but often the most misunderstood. In gold lending, rings carry hidden complexity: solder joints that distort purity, stones that add emotional value but no recoverability, and borrower behaviour that underestimates long-term cost. This episode examin…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Necklaces are pledged in moments of urgency. Bangles are pledged in moments of endurance. One bangle becomes two. Two become a renewal. Renewal quietly becomes a habit. The bangles don’t disappear — they simply stop coming home. In the next episode, we explore this slow drift: how bangles behave…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Bangles look simple. They are anything but. In this episode, we step away from sentiment and focus on structure — how bangles are built, how hollow construction creates visual illusion, why traditional purity tests fall short, and how weight, density, and recoverability ultimately decide value at…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
A structural shift in gold financing saw gold collateral migrate from household liquidity to perpetual overdrafts and intermediary credit, prompting the RBI to ban re-pledged gold lending. This episode dissects balance-sheet patterns, ticket size anomalies, renewal persistence, and regulatory rea…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
As gold jewellery funding structures grow more complex, confusion persists over what the regulator permits, restricts, or discourages. This episode decodes RBI’s regulatory intent across credit cards, EMIs, jeweller schemes, NBFC participation, bullion funding, and structured workarounds—explaini…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Episode 13 Focus — Part-1 of the Clarification Series Proposed Title: Gold & Jewellery Funding — Clearing the Fog (Regulatory Perspectives — Part 1) Episode Scope: This episode will cover: Regulatory Rationale: Why the regulator treats credit-funded gold purchases differently Explicit Prohibition…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Gold jewellery loans rarely default, yet legal disputes continue to rise across banks. Episode 12 examines why risk in gold lending does not surface through NPAs, but through renewal behaviour, exposure persistence, and borrower exit governance. By comparing governance maturity signals with legal…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
When NPAs stop discriminating risk, balance sheets fall silent — and courts begin to speak. This episode of the Gold Jewellery Business series focuses on the legal lifecycle of gold loans, using real judicial cases to examine renewal-versus-closure behaviour, custody and valuation disputes, conte…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Jewellery lending rarely fails at the point of sanction. It fails quietly in the gaps between cash, gold, and time. What appears robust on balance sheets often rests on assumptions about sequencing — assumptions that only surface when timing stops cooperating.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
The Gold Timing Mismatch Pattern reflects a systemic blind spot: we regulated eligibility and audited compliance, but never stress-tested timing. Liquidity looked real on paper — until it wasn’t.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Every crisis looks sudden in hindsight. In reality, most of them are slow. Built from small assumptions repeated for years. Sowcarpet reminds us that balance sheets don’t break because of gold — they break because of when gold is owned, and when money is trusted. Timing creates risk. Not metal.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Episode 5 of the Gold Jewellery Business Lending series examines how popular gold schemes—monthly purchase plans, rate-freeze offers, fintech gold savings, SGBs, and digital gold—silently distort working capital, price risk, and demand visibility. This episode explains why customer money received…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
A comprehensive guide to jewellery lending and gold collateral behaviour. Learn how plain gold, casting jewellery, stone-studded designs, temple work, filigree, and job-work gold impact credit decisions. Essential reading for bankers, credit officers, and MSME finance practitioners.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
From RBI’s historic rulebook clean-up to EASE reforms in PSBs, the message is clear — delete what no longer serves. Simplifying bank data unlocks speed, accuracy and a digital future.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
TAT is reshaping banking behaviour. This article decodes how turnaround time targets create pressure patterns, role distortions, and absurd new archetypes in credit.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
In India, it’s surprisingly common to find Aadhaar showing an initial while your PAN, Passport and every other document carry your full name. Yet many bank counters insist: “Account name must match Aadhaar.” The truth? There is no such RBI rule. Aadhaar is only one of several Officially Valid Doc…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Globally, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) will observe its 25ᵗʰ International Fraud Awareness Week from 16 November 2025 to 22 November 2025, urging organizations and professionals everywhere to…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
SARFAESI was meant to be a scalpel — sharp, precise, and decisive. Instead, it has become a crutch. Over two decades, banks have leaned so heavily on it that the very intent of the law is at risk. Recovery rates are falling, delays are mounting, and auctions are failing. The problem isn’t SARFAES…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Credit ratings are more than letters on paper — their real meaning lies in the methodology behind them. Through-the-Cycle (TTC) ratings give stability but may mask brewing trouble, while Point-in-Time (PIT) ratings give real-time alerts but can swing wildly with market conditions. Regulators pref…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Procyclicality in Indian lending isn’t just market psychology — it’s also policy inaction. RBI has long had the concept of a counter-cyclical provisioning buffer on paper: build extra reserves in good times, use them to keep credit flowing in bad times. But in practice, activation triggers are un…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
The RBI’s 100 bps rate cut in 2025 may feel like fresh stimulus, but for banks it’s a replay of the 2020 margin squeeze. Loan rates fall almost instantly, while deposit costs lag — creating a profitability gap. From corporate borrowers negotiating razor-thin deals to banks shifting towards retail…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Cash Credit and Overdraft facilities were designed as lifelines for India’s working capital needs — flexible, revolving, and temporary. But over time, they have quietly morphed into heavy chains: perpetually drawn, poorly monitored, and weakening borrower discipline. This data-driven analysis unc…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Opening Scene Mumbai, June 2025. Dr. K, a 73-year-old retired cardiologist, receives a video call. A woman, fluent in English, claims to...
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
How artificial deadlines make us bypass logic and fall into deception. 🧾 REAL STORY: A Missed Package, A Costly Click Kochi, 2023 ...
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Curiosity-driven trust — when the urge to know overrides the instinct to pause. REAL STORY: The Email That Felt Too Specific Hyderabad,...
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
She taught multiplication by day — and promised it in returns by night. In small-town Tamil Nadu, a beloved schoolteacher ran a secret Ponzi scheme that preyed on emotional trust, sisterhood, and silence. This episode explores how relational familiarity can blind even the wisest among us.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
A voice message claiming to be from an AIIMS doctor warned against paracetamol during COVID — and it went viral. No name. No face. Just familiarity. In this episode, we unpack how truth bias thrives in closed networks like WhatsApp, and why the most believable lies often come from someone we trust.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
When a fake IAS officer set up unauthorized vaccine camps in Kolkata, over 150 people were injected with saline — not medicine. This episode unpacks how truth bias and the placebo effect collided during India’s second COVID wave, revealing how easily we trust the system when it looks official.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
He didn’t wield a weapon. He didn’t climb walls or hack into systems. All he carried was confidence, costume, and a cleverly printed card — and it was enough to walk into families, hearts, and bank accounts. That’s the dangerous power of truth bias when it wears the mask of authority.
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
The study of the principle of Truth Bias, has exhibited some very beautiful behavioral patterns, specifically in the Rural Markets. However, the relevance of this, is in the context of defaults in repayments of loans…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
As has been my experience, in my recent years of my career, the start point for any investigation, Underwriting, or process has been to check if all facts were correctly elicited and recorded and then check for…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Introduction given in Part 1 ( Repeated for sake of continuity / reference ) : It looked like just another day. Yet, it was a day which got me crystallizing my views and thoughts. The topic is a clichéd one – Role of…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
It looked like just another day. Yet, it was a day which got me crystallizing my views and thoughts. The topic is a clichéd one – Role of internal check mechanisms. Nay, it is not about how and where. It is about some…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Continued..... from Part 1.. ..highlights of a talk on "Fraud Prevention in Farm Equipment Financing" Observation 3 - Know your domain I've read about Luca Pacioli's Quote, which I shall use slightly differently - "He…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
Let’s start this with a positive story – a business oppurtunity wise story and then we can correlate it to other scenarios One financier received a case where the customer had quote Lemon to be the crop. The business…
Fraud, Ethics & Governance
At a recent gathering, I was asked to speak on " Fraud Prevention in Farm Equipment Financing ", and this was more of an impromptu talk with little time to prepare. Yet, I gathered and covered the talk in points of…