Banking frauds jump over 2.5x by value in FY20 – Times of India

TNN
Mumbai: The value of money involved in banking-related frauds in India rose more than two and half times to Rs 1.9 lakh crore in fiscal 2020 from about Rs 71,500 crore in the previous year. In terms of number of fraud cases, however, the jump was a more modest 28% to nearly 8,700 cases from 7,000 in previous year, according to the RBI’s annual report.
The report showed that 98% of total fraud value and 53% of such cases were related to loans taken by customers. Although internet- and card-related frauds are widespread, making up 31% of number of cases, the money involved was Rs 195 crore. However, the number of such cases jumped to 195 in FY20 from 71 in the previous fiscal. Unlike the government and corporates, which follow the April-March financial year, the RBI follows a July-June fiscal year.
The central bank said that it assigns a particular year to an instance of fraud when such an incidence is reported and not when it had taken place. “The dates of occurrence of these frauds are…spread over several previous years,” it said.
The RBI will study some large-value frauds to understand the reasons behind delays in identifying such incidents. It is also in the process of interlinking various databases and information systems to improve fraud-monitoring and detection.
“A study on the large-value frauds with the involvement of select banks, NBFCs, urban-cooperative banks and domain experts will be undertaken for recognising the causes for delay in identifying frauds by supervised entities and suggest measures for early detection and timely mitigation of the risks arising out of frauds,” it said in the annual report.