The 2020 Banks & SDI’s Fraud report by the Bank of Ghana has indicated that more than half (56 per cent) of the 2,670 fraud cases reported by banks and specialised deposit institutions in 2020 involved staff of the reporting institutions.
The report by the central bank said although banks have been cautioned against fraudulent cases, the trend is still increasing.
The bank explained in the report that noted that the steady rise of this phenomenon generally could be attributed to the use of poorly remunerated temporary staff, who undergo limited background checks, for sensitive tasks and a lack of corporate governance systems that helped to ensure accountability and fairness and transparency.
Per the report released, 73.3% of suppression of deposits accounted for fraud cases.
The involvement of staff of the affected institutions was 78.6 per cent of all cash suppression cases reported indicating the involvement of staff.
The report noted that the reported value of fraud for 2020 was GH¢1.0 billion, as compared to GH¢115.51million recorded in 2019.).
This was as a result of high values recorded in attempted correspondent banking fraud (forgery of SWIFT advice).
The report also attributed the surge in fraud cases to the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in a spike in the use of digital/electronic platforms for financial transactions.
According to BoG, the use of digital platforms increased fraud related to digital/electronic products and services and consequently, an increase in losses emanating from products such as E-Money and ATM/Card fraud.
E-Money related loss accounted for 4.1 per cent of the total fraud related loss incurred in 2020, as compared to a rate of 1.1 per cent recorded in 2019, the report added.
The proportion of E-Money-related fraud incidents reported also rose from 0.6 per cent in 2019 to 4.7 per cent in 2020.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
