Fraud perpetrated by bank staff rises, says FITC

• Published date: 18 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Financial Institution Training Centre (FITC) is worried by the rising involvement of bank workers in fraud cases in Nigeria. It said that such bank staff are taking undue advantage of their access to defraud bank customers.

The report, which gave insights into fraudulent activities in Nigerian banks between April and June 2022, showed that 19 employees of banks were sacked within the period due to their involvement in fraudulent activities. The number of bank workers that were sacked in second quarter 2022 due to fraud represents a 90 per cent increase compared to 10 recorded in Q1 2022.

Comparison the data with the same period in 2021 showed an alarming 375 per cent increase, as only four dismissals for fraud were recorded in the second quarter of 2021. With a total of N1.17 billion lost to frauds across 24 banks in Nigeria in the second quarter of 2022, 73 bank staff were reported to have been involved in the activities, representing a 27.6 per cent increase when compared with 60 recorded in the first quarter of the year.

The report gives credence to wide speculations that most fraudulent activities on bank customers' accounts are carried out in connivance with bank staff. With the increasing trend of young...