The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has revealed that fraud cases in the banking and SDI sectors rose by 27.74 per cent in 2022, reaching 2,998 incidents, compared to 2,347 in 2021.
However, the losses incurred by these fraud cases dropped by 7.88 per cent, from GH¢61m in 2021 to GH¢56m in 2022. This is according to the BoG’s 2022 fraud report, which covers the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022.
The report identified the top five fraud typologies that affected most of the financial institutions as forgery and manipulation of documents, fraudulent withdrawals, cheque fraud, cyber/email and cash theft (cash suppression).
The most prevalent and costly fraud typology was forgery and manipulation of documents, which resulted in a loss of GH¢33 million. Fraudulent withdrawals from customers’ accounts, mostly involving bank and SDI staff, caused a loss of GH¢7 million, while cheque fraud using cloned cheques led to a loss of GH¢5 million.
The report noted that fraud cases involving staff decreased to 188 in 2022, from 278 in 2021, due to strict sanctions by BoG and improved controls by the sector institutions.
To address the increase in fraud cases and losses among Banks and SDIs, BoG issued some directives to the financial institutions, such as communicating fraud cases to BoG and the Ghana Association of Banks, increasing fraud sensitisation to customers, reviewing risk management and internal control frameworks, and reporting financial crime to the Ghana Police Service.
The BoG’s fraud report aims to inform the general banking public of fraud trends and measures taken by BoG to ensure the integrity of the banking system.
