The Reserve Bank of India has banned audit firm SR Batliboi & Co. LLP, a member firm of EY, for one year from auditing commercial bank books, after the central bank found lapses in a statutory audit. Information collated from CMIE database shows SR Batliboi & Co. LLP audited books of around 270 companies in fiscal 2018 - a majority of them (11.4 per cent) belonged to other fund-based financial services with banking services firms managing a share of 3 per cent. The firm has been the auditor in less than 10 banks for the past five years.
In FY18, it audited eight banks compared to six in the previous fiscal. As per the current data available, books of only foreign and private banks are handled by this firm. Of the eight banks audited in 2017/18, four were foreign banks such as Mizuho Bank, Barclays Bank Plc; three were private sector lenders such as Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. As per nseinfobase.com, SR Batliboi & Co. LLP's income through audit fee in NSE-listed companies grew from Rs 26.3 crore in 2016/17 to Rs 28.61 crore in 2017/18.