Fraud-Hit Indian Bank Eyes Image Makeover, Expects Profits

Punjab National Bank, the Indian lender that’s complained of three scandals in as many years, is clearing a backlog of provisions and expects to post net income in every quarter of the financial year started April 1.

Operating profits are already looking healthy, Managing Director S.S. Mallikarjuna Rao said in an interview in New Delhi on Saturday. The nation’s second-largest public sector bank is also looking to cement more prudential measures -- such as separating processes responsible for loan approvals from those that take care of disbursals -- to avoid potential fraud. The two departments would function at an arms’ length from each other and report into a new risk-management team that oversees all loans in a specified geographic area.