The number of bank and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institution (SDI) employees implicated in fraudulent activities surged from 188 in 2022 to 274 in 2023, marking a 46% rise, as revealed by the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) annual Fraud Report. Of the 274 cases in 2023, a significant 77% (211 staff members) were involved in cash theft or cash suppression, compared to 66% (140 staff) in 2022.
Additionally, the report disclosed that losses in the financial sector due to fraud climbed by 7% in 2023, with total losses amounting to approximately GH¢88 million, up from GH¢82 million in 2022. Across three key sub-sectors—banks, Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs), and Payment Service Providers (PSPs)—fraud cases increased by 5%, rising from 15,164 in 2022 to 15,865 in 2023.
The banks of Ghana report identified growing fraud in areas such as fraudulent account withdrawals, cyber or email fraud, and cash theft. Notably, fraudsters often target individuals with mobile banking applications linked to mobile money wallets. Although attempted fraud cases in banks and SDIs dropped sharply by 59% in 2023 compared to the previous year, the total loss value reached GH¢72 million, representing a 29% increase over the GH¢56 million recorded in 2022.
This surge was driven by outlier cases involving foreign currencies, which significantly inflated the overall attempted fraud loss value. Meanwhile, the PSP sector recorded GH¢16 million in losses from 14,655 cases in 2023. Though the financial loss decreased by 38% from GH¢26 million in 2022, the number of incidents rose by 20%, up from 12,166 cases the previous year.
SOURCE: https://dew360.net
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