BoG orders banks to submit plans to cut financial fraud

This decision follows the Bank of Ghana’s latest annual Fraud Report, which revealed a significant rise in staff involvement in fraudulent activities at banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs), increasing from 188 in 2022 to 274 in 2023—a 46% jump.

Additionally, the financial losses due to fraud rose by 7%, totalling 88 million cedis during the same period.

In an interview, the Deputy Director of the Financial Stability Department at the BoG, Dr. John Dadzie, explained that new measures have been established to require banks to develop and submit a comprehensive plan to tackle this issue.

“The Bank of Ghana is concerned about fraud prevention across all banks. We do not differentiate between institutions with higher or lower fraud rates. Upon releasing our reports, we write to all banks to submit strategies outlining their plans to minimize fraud incidence and related losses,” he said.

Dr. Dadzie emphasized that the Bank of Ghana’s goal is to minimize fraud in the financial sector to deter both staff and the public from engaging in fraudulent activities. He noted that the bank is committed to preventing fraud before it occurs, rather than just addressing it after the fact.

“Fraud is fraud and from the regulator’s point of view, we are looking at not having fraud situations at all. Even if a bank has one or two incidences of fraud, the impact could be very significant”, he pointed out.

While refraining from naming specific banks, Dr. Dadzie stated that the central bank’s mandate is to implement measures that enforce strict penalties for anyone involved in fraud within the financial sector.

“The Bank of Ghana is very much concerned not just in terms of who has more or less. Fraudulent activities are unacceptable, and from a regulator’s point of view, we aim to eliminate such occurrences. Even isolated incidents of fraud can have significant consequences for banks”.