The amount of money involved in bank frauds in the last financial year has come down by more than half, compared to the previous financial year. This is according to the Reserve Bank of India’s Annual Report for Financial Year 2021-22, which was released on Friday.

While a whopping ₹1,38,211 crore was involved in fraudulent banking activities in FY21, it was just ₹60,414 crore in FY22. Frauds reported by public sector banks account for ₹40,282 crore, which is 67 per cent of the total money involved. That being said, the amount of money involved in frauds in public sector banks, has been reducing since FY20. It was ₹1,48,224 crore and ₹81,901 crore in FY20 and FY21, respectively.

While we saw that the amount involved in frauds has come down steeply, the number of incidents of fraud has increased by 1,744, compared to FY21. At that time, a total of 7,359 frauds were reported by banks across the country. However, in FY22, the number shot up to 9,103. A majority of these incidents (5,334) were reported in private sector banks. Over a third, or 3,308 incidents, were reported by public sector banks.

This time, too, like the previous financial years, 97 per cent of the money related to frauds in advances (₹58,328 crore) was involved. However, 3,839 incidents of fraud occurred in this category. While cards and Internet transactions amounted for a total of 3,596 frauds, only ₹155 crore was involved.

Solving an age-old problem

Talking about how the amount of money involved in bank frauds has been reducing, Minister of State for Finance, Bhagwat Karad, acknowledged improved detection and reporting, along with comprehensive steps. He was answering a question related to bank frauds, posed by Indian National Congress MP, Kumar Ketkar, on March 15.

The RBI also has mentioned “enhancement of Fraud Risk Management System, including improving efficacy of Early Warning System Framework, strengthening fraud governance and response system, augmenting the data analysis for monitoring of transactions, introduction of dedicated Market Intelligence (MI) Unit for frauds and implementation of automated unique system generated number for each fraud”, as one of its agendas for the ongoing financial year.

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