May 15 (Reuters) – Punjab National Bank, the fourth-biggest Indian lender by assets, posted a $1.98 billion fourth-quarter net loss after being hit by a massive fraud.

The loss for the three months to March 31 came in at 134.17 billion rupees compared with a net profit of 2.62 billion rupees a year ago, the company said in a statement. here

In what has been dubbed as the biggest fraud in India’s banking history, PNB in February disclosed two jeweller groups had defrauded it of more than $2 billion by raising credit overseas using fake guarantees issued by rogue PNB staff at a Mumbai branch over several years. ($1 = 67.8550 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Murali Anantharaman and Edwina Gibbs)