New Delhi, Mar 14 (IANS): Three top private banks have been accused of running a nationwide money laundering racket by an investigative news website and production house, based on a sting operation that they said spanned some five months.

Stating that it was a pan-India undercover investigation, Cobrapost Thursday claimed to have caught on tape several officials of these banks indulging in "brazen criminal activity" by channelizing vast amounts of ill-gotten money into the regular banking system as laundered white money.

"Our investigation, conducted across dozens of branches of these banks and their insurance affiliates revealed that the money laundering practices are part of a standard set of procedures within these banks," said Cobrapost.

Speaking to IANS, editor of Cobrapost, Aniruddha Bahal, said: "These banks and their managements are violating several provisions and policies of the government with utter disregard to consequences to boost cheap deposits and increase profits."

The banks rake in vast amounts of black money in the form of illegal deposits, insurance and investment products, sold by them.

"The interaction between officials of the banks and our reporter clearly brings out the connivance of senior management of these banks in facilitating money laundering and other illegal transactions," said Cobrapost.

"The senior management has compromised all standards of governance and brazenly broken the law by offering money-laundering services practically as a nation-wide product," it added.