The Reserve Bank of India imposed approximately ₹27 crore in monetary penalties across 40 enforcement actions against scheduled commercial banks in calendar year 2025, according to a tally compiled by ET BFSI. The actions, disclosed through individual press statements published by the RBI for each case, spanned a wide range of compliance failures including Know Your Customer lapses, cybersecurity shortcomings, credit card conduct breaches, and governance gaps across the banking sector.
Private sector banks bore the greater share of the aggregate penalty bill, paying ₹16.28 crore compared with ₹8.78 crore for their public sector counterparts — nearly double the state-owned banks' total. Jammu and Kashmir Bank incurred the single largest penalty among private lenders at ₹3.31 crore, while State Bank of India was the most heavily fined public sector bank at ₹1.72 crore during the period.
BREAKDOWN BY INSTITUTION AND VIOLATION TYPE
Among foreign banks operating in India, HSBC attracted the highest penalty at ₹66.60 lakh, relating to KYC and regulatory compliance lapses. Small finance banks accounted for more than ₹2.5 crore of the year's total, with Jana Small Finance Bank recording the largest individual fine in that segment at ₹1 crore.
The enforcement actions spanned a range of violation categories, including KYC and customer due diligence failures, cybersecurity framework breaches, credit card and debit card conduct issues, collateral and loan-to-value ratio breaches, current account discipline lapses, shortfalls in priority sector lending, and governance deficiencies. The RBI's penalty notices typically state that the actions are based on deficiencies in regulatory compliance, often identified in statutory inspections for supervisory evaluation, and are not intended to pronounce upon the validity of any transaction or agreement entered into by the bank with its customers.