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  • Business - Banking & Finance
  • Updated: August 23, 2021

Eight Banks Lose N1.9 billion To Fraud

Eight Banks Lose N1.9 billion To Fraud

Eight Nigerian deposit money banks lost a total of N1.9 billion as a result of fraudulent incidents within one year, according to data collated from their annual reports.

The affected banks are Polaris Bank, Zenith Bank, Sterling Bank, Access Bank, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank, Wema Bank Plc, and Fidelity Bank Plc.

Polaris bank was the biggest prey to fraudulent activities in the said period, losing a staggering N938.4 million. Zenith Bank, which came next, lost N360 million.

According to its annual report, Polaris recorded a total of 134 cases of fraud in 2020 which comprise seven fraud categories, namely Automated Teller Machine fraud (43 cases), Internet bank fraud (three cases), mobile fraud (46), impersonation fraud (three cases), cheque theft (one case), outright theft (25 cases) and general fraud incidents (113).

The report also revealed that ATM, Internet bank, mobile and impersonation fraud cases cost the bank N830.1m, N37.7m, N16.2m and N989,700 respectively, while cheque theft led to a loss of N1m. Outright theft and general fraud incidents resulted in N21.8m and N30.4m losses respectively.

Zenith Bank's fraud losses grew by 34.3 percent (N92million) from N268 million recorded in 2019 to N360m in 2020, while the number of fraud cases recorded by Guaranty Trust Bank grew from 15,461 in 2019 to 17,310 last year and the cost of the fraud cases rose to N174.4m from N107.4m recorded in 2019.

Access Bank lost a total of N138.1m in 2020, which is N197.1m lower than what it incurred in the previous year. However, the bank’s fraud incidents rose from 5,836 cases in 2019 to 11,784 last year.

Sterling, Wema and Fidelity recorded fraud losses of N132.23m, N105.4m and N22.2m, respectively.

Further analysis of the reports revealed that Sterling Bank’s total fraud loss grew from N109.5m in 2019 to N132.23, while losses incurred by Fidelity Bank fell by N315.3m in the period under review.

Wema Bank recorded 1,201 fraud cases, which led to a loss of N105.4m, consisting of Internet fraud (N93.9m) and operational and other types of fraud (N11.4m).

Union Bank lost N1.5m to fraud in 2020, which was N400,000 lower than what it recorded in the previous year.

The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc had in February 2021 released the second edition of its ‘Fraud in the Nigerian financial services’ report, which revealed that in the first nine months of 2020, financial institutions lost N5bn to fraudulent activities.

NIBSS said in Nigeria’s banking sector, N203.4m was lost in 984 fraud attempts, while 3,163 attempts that could have resulted to a N380.2m loss were repelled.

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