Due to lapses in management, Nigerian banks have lost a significant amount of money to fraud and forgeries, as perpetrators escalate their efforts to defraud local lenders.
According to the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) Q2 2024 Fraud and Forgeries report, which was released on Saturday, N42.6 billion was lost as a result of fraudulent activities, including forgeries, between April and June 2024.
The analysis, based on fraud and forgery reports from 28 deposit money institutions throughout the country, revealed a concerning increase in fraudulent activity.
The figure eclipsed the total amount lost due to fraud in 2023, which was N9.4 billion. Further analysis revealed that the Q2 loss is an 8,993 percent increase over the N468.4 million lost in Q1 2024. This also reflects a 637 percent increase compared to the N5.7 billion loss recorded in Q2 2023.
The data revealed that miscellaneous and other fraud types constituted the largest loss, representing 96.46 percent of the total amount lost, with a value of N41.14 billion.
This was followed by losses from fraudulent withdrawals and computer/web fraud, amounting to approximately N781.2 million and N400.7 million, respectively.
FITC urged Nigerian banks to strengthen access controls to settlement files.
“Access controls should also be strengthened by limiting access to settlement files to only a small, vetted group of authorised personnel given the appropriate clearance and regularly trained on the latest security protocols.
“The implementation of multi-factor authentication and role-based access controls can aid in reducing the risk of unauthorized changes to settlement files,” FITC stated.
