The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that at least 6,047 Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs) of bank customers have been placed under its watch list for suspected fraudulent transactions.
This was contained in the CBN financial stability June 2022 report published in December 2022.
The report disclosed that the apex bank conducted an assessment of 28 banks and the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) to ascertain compliance with the regulatory framework for BVN operations and watch-list for the Nigerian banking industry in the review period, The Punch reports.
It noted that the assessment revealed some infractions and regulatory actions were taken.
The report further noted that there were 2.72 million enrolled in the first half of this year, bringing the total number of enrolled BVNs to 54.65 million.
In the report, it was also stated that the number of BVN-linked accounts was 130.57 million out of 148.46 million active accounts.
The report partly reads, “Also, 2,722,518 BVNs were enrolled, bringing the total BVN enrolment to 54,651,086, reflecting an increase of 5.24 per cent over 51,928,568 enrolments at end-December 2021.
“The number of accounts linked with BVNs was 130,569,656 out of 148,462,947 active customer accounts, while the number of watch-listed BVNs associated with fraud and deceased persons stood at 6,047 and 11,871, respectively.”
Based on the report, the total number of watch-listed BVNs for fraud increased by 13.09 percent from 5,347 in December 2021 to 6,047 in June 2022.
It was earlier reported that four Nigerian deposit money banks (DMBs) lost a total of N1.77 billion to fraudulent activities involving the banks’ employees and customers in 2021.
This was contained in the 2021 financial statements of the banks, which included Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Plc, First Monument City Bank, and Wema Bank.
According to their financial statements, WEMA and GTB incurred the biggest losses as a result of fraud within the period under review, as they lost N670.73 million and N511.9 million respectively.
For Wema Bank, the cost of fraud rose by N27.46 million, year on year, as the loss incurred in 2020 was N643.277 million.
In the case of GTB, the fraud losses almost tripled in 2021.
At N511.9 million, the losses the bank incurred due to fraudulent activities increased by N337.5 million from N174.40 million recorded in 2020.
GTB also disclosed that it recorded 15,204 cases of fraud and forgeries in 2021 involving N1.2 billion.
Similarly, Access Bank revealed that while it lost N502 million to fraud in 2021, third parties lost about N1.98 billion
The bank also said that it recorded a total of 17,697 cases of fraud in 2021, majorly comprising electronic fraud/USSD (17,911), cash theft/ suppression/pilferage/dry posting (33), fraudulent transfer/withdrawals/reactivation of account (16), and armed robbery (6).
During the review period, FCMB’s losses as a result of fraud climbed from N59.03 million to N89.8 million
Meanwhile, Access Bank, GTB and Fidelity Bank recorded 26,877 fraud cases in the first six months of this year, according to analyses of their financial reports for the first half of 2022.
This was a 56.45 percent decrease from the 61,715 fraud cases that were recorded by the banks between June and December, 2021.
In line with section 5.1.2 (L) of the CBN code of corporate governance, the Guaranty Trust Holding Company and subsidiary companies reported 15,004 fraud incidences in the period under review.
The bank reported that N1.55 billion and $50,700 were involved in these cases, with N158.37 million recorded as actual/expected loss.
Similarly, Access Bank Plc reported N1.2 billion as fraud losses for the period. The bank recorded 10,706 fraud attempts in the first half of 2022.
About 7,104 attempts were successful while 3,602 were unsuccessful, and the sum of N12.55 billion was involved in these attempts.
According to the bank, 7,928 electronic/USSD fraud cases were recorded in the period under review, with 849 successful attempts.
Fraudulent transfer/withdrawals/reactivation of accounts had the most amounts involved, with successful attempts worth N9.48 billion made and actual loss worth N1.08 billion.
Other successful and unsuccessful fraud attempts fell under the following categories: cash theft/ suppression/pilferage/dry posting, among others.
Fidelity Bank PLC recorded 1,167 fraud incidents in the period under review.
The amount involved was N471.01m and $8,367 but actual loss was N4.90m and $2,400.
According to the NIBSS, Nigeria has one of the most advanced electronic payment capabilities in the world.
It said that the increase in transaction processing speed and available channels had also created an avenue for fraudulent transactions to thrive.
Recently, the CBN said that its current cash withdrawal limit policy would help in tackling electronic fraud.
The CBN director of the payments system management department, Musa Jimoh, made this known on Saturday, December 24, in Lagos state.
Jimoh also disclosed that as electronic payments continued to gain traction, fraudulent transactions in 2022 reduced by 35 percent compared to last year.
He noted that the new policy would prevent criminals from defrauding innocent people.
The CBN official said that, “We have actually tamed down the incidence of fraud.
“We have recovered so many lost funds and we are putting formidable systems around our payment infrastructure and financial system infrastructure such that fraudsters cannot penetrate.
“In terms of percentage, it is between 30 to 35 percent decline in incidences of fraud. Remember, there are attempts and they are successful ones.
“The number of attempts is high, which means that fraudsters have been attempting but they are not successful and some are successful and so money was taken away.
“And in terms of recovery, we also recovered high numbers in terms of the percentage of the funds recovered because of the different initiatives and systems that have been put in place to checkmate these fraudsters and to track wherever the money is taken into,” he added.
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