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Bank Frauds Are On The Rise Again, Says RBI Annual Report

The number of bank frauds is up again even as the money involved has fallen.

<div class="paragraphs"><p>500 rupee Indian banknotes. (Source: Unsplash)</p></div>
500 rupee Indian banknotes. (Source: Unsplash)

Banks reported more instances of fraud than a year earlier even as the value dropped.

There were 9,103 bank fraud cases in the fiscal ended March 2022 compared with 7,359 a year ago and 8,703 in FY20, according to data available in the Reserve Bank of India’s annual report.

By value, however, banks reported fraud worth Rs 60,414 crore in FY22 against Rs 1.38 lakh crore a year ago.

Private sector banks accounted for the most fraud cases (58.6% of the total) in FY22, public peers contributed the highest by value (66.7%).

Frauds have largely been occurring in the loan portfolio of banks, both by volume and value, the RBI said in the report.

While the number of frauds reported by private banks was mainly on account of small value card/internet frauds, the fraud amount reported by public lenders was mainly in loan portfolio.

The regulator also said there was a significant time lag in reporting of bank frauds.

“93.73% of the frauds in 2021-22 by value occurred in previous financial years against 91.71% recorded in 2020-21,” the RBI said.