this story originally appeared in on jul 21 2020new delhi private lender hdfc bank terminated at least six senior and midlevel executives after an internal probe revealed that they violated the code of conduct and governance standards by indulging in practices seen as corrupt three people familiar with the matter said this termination pertains to practices at the auto loans department where some staff allegedly forced customers to buy the gps devices bundling it with the car loan it was found that some customers were not even aware of purchasing such a product till the loan documents were checked these errant employees started forcefully bundling these products with car loans to meet sales targets and potentially track borrowers in the event of a default hdfc bank has a tieup with trackpoint gps to sell these devices the lender did not respond to a detailed questionnaire seeking comments this is a bank approved product its quite a minuscule portion of the banks portfolio hardly 40005000 of these devices costing rs 1800019000 each were sold every month said an official in the know the gross failure for the bank has been its audit which failed to spot the misdoinghdfc bank is the largest vehicle finance provider and books at least 5000055000 car loans every month it has an annual business worth at least rs 40000 crore at the end of june 2020 the lender had an outstanding vehicle loan portfolio of rs 81082 crore against rs 81913 crore during the same period last yearspeaking at the banks annual general meeting over the weekend aditya puri the chief of hdfc bank had denied there being any conflict of interestwe had received some whistleblowing complaints internal enquiries carried out in the matter on the complaints received has not brought out any conflict of interest issue nor does it have any bearing on our loan portfolio puri had said enquiry did bring out another aspect related to personal misconduct exhibited by a set of individuals for which appropriate disciplinary actions have been takena bloomberg report last week had suggested that ashok khanna the former head of the banks vehicle financing business had been denied an extension after a probe was launched into its vehicle loan portfolioashok khanna being head of that business segment had also participated in the enquiry process subsequently he superannuated on 31 march 2020 upon expiry of his tenure and as per the original terms of employment puri had clarifiedkhanna exclusively spoke to et and denied all allegations against him claiming that he retired as per due processthe news published of my retirement on the completion of the contract is correct i did not have any offer of an extension as i already had received a 3 years extension khanna told et there was no offer made to me which i declined there is an attempt to malign my name and reputation by someone i have worked for 18 yrs and created a great quality highly profit making envious franchise