The 2021 Banking, Specialised
Deposit-Taking Institutions (B&SDI) and Electronic Money Issuers (EMI)
fraud report has revealed that the year 2021 has shown a minimal decline of
12.09% in the number of attempted fraud cases of 2,347 for the Banking and SDI
sector as compared to 2,670 in 2020.
However, the report said, the year 2021
recorded a loss value of GH¢61million as compared to a loss of GH¢25 million in
2020, representing a 144.00% increase in year-on-year terms.
“The significant fraud types that accounted
for this figure included ATM card/POS [Point of Sale] fraud, impersonation,
lending and credit fraud, forgery and manipulation of documents, cash
suppression and E-money fraud,” it indicated.
“The increase in usage of electronic
and digital platforms in the financial sector resulted in an increase in ATM
card/POS fraud. However, there were other fraud types, which also recorded some
huge losses. Notable among these are impersonation, lending and credit fraud,
suppression of cash, E-money and forgery and manipulation of documents. ATM
card/POS related fraud recorded the highest loss of GH¢22million. This can be
attributed to negligence of some customers and weak systems of some financial
institutions.
“Another significant fraud type was
impersonation which recorded a loss of GH¢10million. This loss can be
attributed to lack of due diligence on the part of bank staff and customers of
financial institutions when carrying out transactions. Staff involvement in
fraud, which constitutes 53.46% of total fraud cases, continued to increase in
the year under review. Statistics indicate that staff involvement in fraud
cases increased to 278, as compared to 253 in 2020, representing an increase of
9.88% in year-on-year terms. For 2021, the Rural and Community Banks recorded the
highest rate of staff involvement in fraud with a figure of 46.04%; the
Universal banks accounted for 28.06%, while the Savings and Loans companies accounted
for 16.55%.
“The EMI sector reported a significant number
of mobile money (MOMO) fraud incidents and loss values in 2021. EMIs recorded
12,350 MOMO related fraud incidents in 2021. The total value of fraud reported
by EMIs for the 2021 amounted to GH¢14.2 million. The total E-Money related
loss recorded by EMIs in 2021 amounted to approximately GH¢12.8million.”
The Bank of Ghana said it is strengthening its
fraud monitoring activities and enforcement of required internal controls and
risk governance within banks, SDIs, EMIs and other regulated entities.
“The Bank of Ghana has issued a notice to the
public, banks and other regulated entities on the usage of the Ghana Card as
the primary
identification document for all financial transactions. All Banks and SDIs are
required to pay particular attention to this directive and ensure
compliance. This will mitigate the incidence of fraud in the financial sector.
“A secretariat has been set up at the
Financial Stability Department of the Bank of Ghana to coordinate the
activities of the Committee for Cooperation between Law Enforcement Agencies
and the Banking Community (COCLAB). This is to ensure that COCLAB achieves its
mandate of developing and implementing effective controls to mitigate fraud in
the sector,” the report added.
By Laud Nartey
Source:
3news.com