Fraud activities in Ghana’s banking industry increased in 2019 compared to 2018, a report from the Bank of Ghana on fraud has revealed.
The data from the central bank indicated that fraud cases in the banking sector increased to 2,295 in 2019 from 2,175 in 2018, representing a 5.5 percent increase.
During the period under review, the Banking Industry reported approximately GHC115.52 million as fraud to the Bank of Ghana. Of the total values reported, approximately GHC 33.44 million (28.96%) was reported as losses incurred, whiles approximately GHC 82.06 million (71.04%) was recovered.
Explaining the cause for this increase in fraud cases, the Bank of Ghana noted that the surge in cases is partly attributable to the improved efforts by the Financial Stability Department to identify, monitor, and to ensure compliance with reporting of fraud cases in the industry.
Giving more details, the report said the various forms of advanced technologies adopted by financial institutions made the banking sector more susceptible to various risks such as phishing, identity theft, card skimming, vishing, email fraud and more sophisticated types of cyber-crime.
“Similar to the year 2018, in 2019, suppression of cash and deposits accounted for the largest portion of the total number of fraud cases reported to the Bank of Ghana,” the report said.
“The alarming rate of involvement of bank staff in the perpetration of fraud in the banking sector, calls for significant reforms in the engagement, remuneration and disengagement processes of employees and contractual staff of financial institutions”, the report noted.