Banks Lost Over N5bn To Fraudsters In Nine Months — NDIC

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has stated that it is in collaboration with sister agencies in law enforcement to curtail cybercrimes especially in the financial system.

Speaking at the annual capacity building programme for law enforcement agencies in Lagos yesterday, NDIC’s Executive Director, Corporate Services, Mrs Omotola Abiola-Edewor, said there has been an increase in the volume of fraud cases in banks in recent years.

She added that such crimes are capable of causing irreversible damage to the stability of the banking system. This comes at the backdrop of a revelation that banks in the country lost over N5 billion to fraudsters within the first nine months in 2020.

At the programme with theme: “Effective Investigation and Prosecution of Banking Malpractices that led to the Failure of Banks in Nigeria”, she stated that the value of the fraud cases rose to N204.65 billion in 2019, compared to N38.93 billion in 2018 and N12.01 billion in 2017.

According to Abiola-Edewor, who was represented by Joshua James Etopidiok, and referenced a report by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the fraud incidences could be attributed to the increase in the sophistication of fraud related techniques, such as hacking, cybercrime as well as increase in information technology related products and usage, fraudulent withdrawals and unauthorized credit.

“The channels and instruments through which the reported frauds and forgeries were perpetrated indicated that ATM/Card- related fraud had the highest frequency, accounting for 49.78 percent of fraud cases followed by web based internet banking frauds with 21.02 percent. However, the value of losses was higher in web-based internet banking frauds against ATM card-related fraud”, she said.

Also speaking at the event, Mr B. A Taribo, Director, Legal Department, NDIC, said the objective of the workshop is to develop capacity amongst law enforcement agencies in the investigation and prosecution of banking malpractices, with special emphasis on failed banks.