Punjab National Bank added an additional exposure of 9.42 billion Indian rupees to the total exposure it has in connection to the alleged fraud linked to jeweler Nirav Modi.
The bank said March 13 that the exposure is being added to the existing fraudulent amount and is not a result of any new fraudulent letters of undertaking.
The Indian lender was responding to media reports about the increased amount to what is already the biggest fraud case to hit India's banking sector. The disclosure could push the bank's overall exposure in the ongoing fraud case to over the US$2 billion mark.
Punjab National Bank had uncovered US$1.77 billion of fraudulent transactions at one of its Mumbai branches in February. It later added that it expected an additional US$204.3 million in fraudulent loans.
As of March 13, US$1 was equivalent to 64.76 Indian rupees.
