Fraud cases involving banks in Ghana generally saw an upsurge of 27% in 2022 compared to 2021.
In 2022, 2998 attempted fraud cases for the banking and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs) sectors were recorded compared to 2347 cases in 2021, the fraud report published by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has indicated.
However, the total loss value recorded in 2022 was GH¢56million compared to GH¢61million in 2021.
This shows a 7.88% decrease from 2021.
BoG said the major drivers (top five) fraud typologies that impacted most of the institutions in the sector included forgery and manipulation of documents, fraudulent withdrawals, cheque fraud, cyber/email and cash theft (cash suppression).
Forgery and manipulation of documents emerged as the prominent fraud typology. This type of fraud recorded the highest loss of GH¢33million.
Another fraud typology also on the increase was fraudulent withdrawals.
This typology involved money fraudulently withdrawn from customers’ accounts resulting in losses totalling GH¢7million.
Most of the cases recorded in this fraud type had the involvement of staff of banks and SDIs. Cheque fraud also accounted for a loss in value of GH¢5million. The most common modus operandi in cheque fraud was cloned cheques.
While staff involvement in fraud persists, the numbers have started trending downwards due to strict sanctions imposed by the Bank of Ghana and strong advocacy for improved controls by the sector institutions.