Banking fraud cases hit ¢1bn in 2020 – BoG

The Total Value of reported fraud cases in the banking industry witnessed substantial increase last year to hit ¢1.0 billion, data from the Bank of Ghana has revealed.

This is compared to ¢115.51million recorded in 2019.

According to the Central Bank, the notable increase in the value reported was as a result of high values recorded in attempted correspondent banking fraud (forgery of SWIFT advice).

Even though the banking sector did not suffer any losses from any of the correspondent banking fraud attempts, the report said it posed a reputational risk to some banks, whose staff were found culpable in two of the three reported incidents.

However, losses incurred as a result of fraud for 2020 stood at ¢25.40 million, as compared to an estimated loss of ¢33.44 million in 2019, representing a 24.0% decrease.

Also, submission of fraud returns for 2020, recorded a slight improvement. The report said the banks continued to maintain a 100% rate of submissions, whilst the rural and community banking sector recorded a remarkable increase of 75% in the rate of submissions due to administrative sanctions issued against non-submitting banks in the first half of the year.

Again, the report pointed out that submission rate across the Specialised Deposit-Taking institutions will improve marginally if reporting institutions are adjusted to exclude the distressed institutions.

The year 2020 however recorded 26.4% decrease in the success rate of fraud attempted.

Some fraud types experienced a significant increase in the rate of success, as compared to 2019, whiles others recorded a remarkable decrease in their rate of success, in comparison with 2019. Fraud types such as ATM/POS fraud, impersonation and remittance fraud recorded significant increases in their rate of success for the period under review.

Source: Myjoyonline