MUMBAI: Fear of raids has been added to stress of long hours at work for India's bankers, and managements are taking a series of steps to keep morale up and squeeze opportunities for malfeasance.These include reaching out to bank employees manning frontdesks and line operations, and creating WhatsApp groups to warn employees about “unscrupulous operators” and point to the risks of falling for “small-time gains”.Over the past few days, law enforcement agencies have raided branches of various banks, unearthing unauthorised cash disbursals and fake accounts. Axis Bank, which again saw a raid on Thursday at one of its branches, has suspended 24 employees so far. ET spoke to bankers from SBI , Axis, Bank of India, Central Bank and IDBI Bank.They said while some employees have broken rules, banks face the risk of demoralisation across ranks because of the fear factor.State Bank of India Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told ET that the vast majority of bank employees has responded to the situation by working extraordinarily hard. “They have often worked far beyond the call of duty...service is rendered with no thought for their personal safety & health. In any case, stringent action will be taken against wrongdoers, but their faults should not mar the efforts made by the banking system to tackle the situation arising out of demonetisation ,” she said.Axis Bank MD Shikha Sharma also echoed similar thoughts. Violations by a few should be seen in the perspective of the good work by many employees, she said.“Yes, we have had bad apples who have not followed the process…We have taken the toughest action against such employees and we will do so in every case of divergence from our code of conduct. We are embarrassed that this has happened but these are isolated incidents given that we have more than 3,000 branches and 50,000 employees...We have served 80 lakh customers,” she said.Sharma said her bank has received plenty of customer appreciation: “We have had many of our customers writing to us that the bank has done a great job and therefore it is disappointing that a handful of people have let us down.” She also told ET that Axis Bank has appointed consulting firm KPMG for conducting due diligence and building more safeguards.A senior SBI official said: “Morale is very low…branch officials are being harassed by customers…we have worked long hours, even on weekends, holding camps to open new accounts…in such times, raids, even in branches of peer banks, create a fear psychosis among officers…they fear that they can be targeted.”Other senior bankers, who chose to speak off-record, said senior management is reaching out to employees on frontdesks and line operations to ensure that morale is not impacted.They said employees are being sensitised to follow proper procedures. “We have formed a WhatsApp group where we are sending messages regularly to the front office telling them not to get lured by unscrupulous people for the sake of small-time gains,” said a senior bank official.Large banks have now began shuffling staff from front office to back office and corporate office. “This will prevent malpractices and also result in some sanity because officials at branches were constantly working under pressure to serve customers,” said a senior official from a large public sector bank.A senior official of another major public sector bank said bankers’ fears and the impact of employee morale can get worse if the situation does not become normal soon. “So far it (fear of raids) is not that widespread but there could be an impact if these raids continue.If bankers are all painted with one brush and unnecessarily questioned it will have its own impact." Bankers, however, are unanimous that there will be no mercy for anyone who crosses the line. "Bankers need to know their customers. It is true even in normal times. So if someone comes with a huge amount of deposits then questions have to be asked. If they have not been asked there is something wrong.”