The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed penalties to the tune of Rs 40.39 crore on banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and other entities for breach of norms during 2022-23, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Monday.

As many as 176 of these cases involving fines of Rs 14.04 crore pertained to cooperative banks.

Private sector banks were fined Rs 12.17 crore while public sector banks (PSBs) were levied penalties of Rs 3.65 crore, foreign banks Rs 4.65 crore, and NBFCs ended paying up Rs 4.39 crore.

"RBI has informed that it is mandated to take enforcement action as per Enforcement Policy and Framework approved by the Board for Financial Supervision of RBI, in the form of imposition of monetary penalty on regulated entities for contraventions of different statutes and directions,” the Minister stated.

The RBI issued guidelines on fair practices code to be adopted by banks, NBFCs, and HFCs and these covered various aspects of lending, he added.