The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation has disclosed that the banking sector has witnessed an increase in the rate of fraud, with fraud cases rising to 182.77% from 3,786 cases in 2013 to 10,612 cases as of December 2014.
In its 2014 Annual Report for the banking sector, the corporation said the amount involved within the period under review increased by N3.81bn or 17.5% from N21.8bn to N25.61bn.
The report also said that the expected/actual loss from the increase in the level of the fraud in the industry rose from N5.76bn in 2013 to N6.19bn in 2014.
It attributed the fraud rate increase to the astronomical rise in online banking transactions including fraudulent transfers and withdrawals.
In terms of asset quality, the report said the banking industry recorded significant improvement in the level of its asset quality during the period under review.
For instance, it said the banking industry’s total loans and advances rose by 25.73 per cent from N10.04trn to 12.63trn in 2014.
In the same vein, it said the industry’s amount of non-performing loans increased by 10.26 per cent from 321.66bn in 2013 to 354.84bn in 2014.
In terms of deposit coverage, the NDIC report stated that there was a growth of 3.01 per cent in deposit insurance coverage in the total number of depositors of DMBs (Deposit Money Banks) between the end of 2013 and 2014.
It said the number of depositors fully covered in the 23 DMBs increased by 3.05 per cent from 60,601,039 in 2011 to 62,447,952 in 2014, while the Deposit Insurance Fund grew by 20.88 per cent from N508.06bn in 2013 to N614.16bn in 2014
The report also stated that during the year under review, the corporation continued with the payment of insured deposits to depositors of the closed 48 DMBs.
