A report by FITC has revealed that bank customers in Nigeria lost a total of N2.72bn to fraud in the first and second quarters of 2022.

It was also disclosed that there was a total of 67,878 cases of fraud recorded within this period.

This was according to the second quarter report obtained by our correspondent from the website of FITC.

FITC’s institutional members are members of the Nigerian Banker’s Committee, which comprises the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and all liscensed banks in Nigeria.

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The data, however, showed a decline in the number of fraud cases across the banks compared to the first quarter of 2022.

According to the report, a total of 27,356 incidents of fraud and forgeries were reported in Q2, compared to 40,522 reported cases in the first quarter of 2022, representing a 32.49 per cent decrease between within the periods.

The total sum reported to be involved in fraud cases during the period also decreased by 40.05 per cent from N14.65bn in Q1 2022 to N8.78bn in Q2 2022.

Likewise, for the total amount lost due to fraud incidences, there was a slight decrease of 23.66 per cent from N1.54bn in the first quarter of 2022 to N1.17bn in the second quarter of 2022.

The report showed that mobile fraud which includes fraud activities through USSD transactions had the highest occurrence followed by computer/web fraud and POS fraud.

The report read in part, “Evaluating the total amount lost to frauds in Q2 2022 reveals that Mobile Fraud accounts for 38.18 per cent at N449m loss, followed by Miscellaneous & other types of fraud accounting for 32.19 per cent (N379m) and Suppression of Entries at 11.02 per cent (N129.64m).

“A closer look at the unusual amount recorded under the miscellaneous fraud revealed that the fraud was carried out via E-naira for which the banks were liable.

“With regards to the returns by payment channel, the analysis reveals that there was a decrease in the amount lost to fraud via the web, ATM and PoS channels.”

“The amount lost via the web channel decreased considerably from N1.07bn to N98.4m while the amount lost via the ATM channel decreased from N43m to N5.9m. On the other hand, an increase was noted in the amount lost via the bank branch, mobile fraud channels, from N103.45m to N618.24m (497.56 per cent) and N270.92m to N449.03 million (65.74 per cent).”

The FITC further said it was necessary for banks to further strengthen their internal control measures for improved efficiency in pre-empting fraud activities and ultimate prevention of fraud.

Recently it was reported that at least 6,047 Bank Verification Numbers of bank customers have been placed under the CBN watch-list for fraudulent transactions.

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According to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System, Nigeria has one of the most advanced electronic payment capabilities in the world. It said the increase in transaction processing speed and available channels had also created an avenue for fraudulent transactions to thrive.

In its ‘NIBSS Insight: Fraud in the Nigeria Financial Services’ report, it said, “Statistically, even a one per cent successful fraud rate would result in 100,000 successful fraudulent transactions daily.

“This would directly impact customer’s faith in the entire system and could significantly impact our financial inclusion drive as well as the CBN cashless policy.”
PUNCH