Bank frauds drop to Rs 1.38 lakh crore in FY21: RBI annual report

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The number of frauds of Rs 1 lakh or more reported by banks dropped by 25% in value terms in just one year to Rs 1.38 lakh crore at the end of FY21 versus Rs 1.85 lakh crore in the previous fiscal, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its annual report showed. In number terms fraud reporting was down by 15% to 7363 cases.

PSBs contribute more than half of the total value of frauds As per the report, public sector banks contributed 59.2% of the total value of frauds at Rs 81,901 crore, while private sector banks contributed 33.5% at Rs 46,335 crore and foreign banks contributed 2.4% at Rs 3,315 crore.

Frauds in PSBs decline The share of PSBs in total frauds (both in terms of number and value) decreased while that of private sector banks increased during the corresponding period, the report noted.

In terms of area of operations, frauds have been occurring predominantly in the loan portfolio (advances category), both in terms of number and value. Though the value of frauds reported in advances category for 2020-21, in percentage terms, remained almost same as compared to the last year, the incidence of frauds in advances category, in terms of number, has come down over the previous year, it added.

Time lag in detection of frauds The average time lag between the date of occurrence of frauds and the date of detection was 23 months for the frauds reported in 2020-21, as per the report. However, in respect of large frauds of Rs 100 crore and above, the average lag was 57 months for the same period.