Fakoyejo OlalekanA report by the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) has revealed that more bank workers defrauded customers in the second quarter of 2022.
The institute said 73 bank staff were involved in fraudulent activities in the sector between April to June 2022. In the first quarter of 2021, the report recorded 60 employees.
Although the Financial Institutions Training Centre stated that 19 employees of financial institutions were sacked for offences related to fraudulent activities last year.
The number grew when compared to the 10 bank workers recorded in the first quarter of 2021, according to the FITC.
It was revealed that fraudulent activities in the banking sector were more prominent among outsiders, accounting for 34,677 out of the total 40,522 cases reported in the first quarter of 2021. In the second quarter, the figure dropped to 23,440 out of 27,356 cases reported.
The institute stated that the total amount involved in the fraudulent cases is N14.65 billion in the first quarter of 2021. It contrasted with the N8.78 billion reported in the 2022 second quarter.
However, the total amount lost in the first quarter of 2021 is N1.54 billion. The amount lost was lower in the second quarter of 2022, closing the period with N1.17 billion.
In the report by the Financial Institutions Training Centre, commercial banks were advised to take extra caution in their employment system to curb the growth of bankers involved in fraudulent activities.
“Given the growing number of employees involved in fraudulent activities, banks should exercise extra caution when employing new staff or contracting an outsourcing firm for employment.
“As a measure to curb the involvement of staff in fraudulent activities, staff who have also acted with high integrity in circumstances in which they would have acted otherwise should be duly commended and rewarded for their actions; this sends a positive message to other staff and they too would want to be recognised and rewarded as well,” FITC stated.
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