The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday imposed a fine of Rs 5 crore on Axis Bank, Rs 4.5 crore on HDFC Bank and Rs 1 crore on ICICI Bank for violation of KYC (Know Your Customer) norms and anti-money laundering guidelines after inquiring into charges levelled by investigative website Cobrapost.

“After considering the facts of each case, Reserve Bank came to conclusion that some of the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty.” said RBI in the statement.

The penalty follows scrutiny carried out by RBI of books of accounts, internal control, compliance systems and processes of these three banks at their corporate offices and some branches during March and April.

However, the banking regulator said that the investigation did not reveal any prima facie evidence of money laundering.

“The investigation did not reveal any prima facie evidence of money laundering,” said RBI. “However, any conclusive inference in this regard can be drawn only by an end-to-end investigation of the transactions by tax and enforcement agencies.”