Dr. Ernest Addison
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed that the number of attempted fraud cases in the banking sector and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) sectors in 2022 were 2,998 which indicate a 27.74 per cent increase from the 2021 figure of 2,347.
This was indicated in the 2022 BOG, SDIs and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) Fraud Report which aims at informing the general banking public of fraud trends and reflects trends in fraud typologies observed in relation to services provided by Banks, SDI’s, and PSPs.
The report also stated that the total loss value recorded in 2022 as a result of fraudulent activities stood at approximately GH¢56million as compared to approximately GH¢61million in 2021 showing a 7.88 per cent decrease from 2021.
The top five major drivers for fraud typologies that impacted most of the institutions in the sector include forgery and manipulation of documents, fraudulent withdrawals, cheque fraud, and cyber/email and cash theft.
Forgery and manipulation of documents emerged as the prominent fraud typology recording the highest loss of GH¢33million.
The number of money fraudulently withdrawn from customers’ account increased, resulting in losses totaling GH¢7million. Most of the cases recorded in this fraud type had the involvement of staff of banks and SDIs.
Numbers of staff involvement in fraud decreased to 188 in 2022 as compared to 278 in 2021 as a result of strict sanctions imposed by Bank of Ghana and strong advocacy for improved controls by the sector institutions.
Cheque fraud also accounted for a loss value of GH¢5million with cloned cheques being the most common cheque fraud.
PSPs recorded 12,166 mobile money related fraud incidents in 2022 compared to 12,350 incidents in 2021, indicating a 1% decrease. The total value of fraud reported by PSPs for 2022 amounted to GH¢ 27 million, which is significantly higher than the value of GH¢ 14.2 million recorded in 2021. The total loss value showed a percentage increase of 47%.
The total E-Money related loss recorded by PSPs in 2022 amounted to approximately GH¢26 million, indicating a major increase of 103% from GH¢12.8million in the previous year.
By Abigail Atinuke Seyram Adeyemi