Nationalised banks account for just 17.5 per cent of the fraud cases that have been registered in India’s banking system in the past four years. But what is alarming is that over 83 per cent of the cumulative losses of Rs 29,910 crore due to such acts occurred at state-run lenders, raising a question over the efficacy of systems in place in the wake of the Cobrapost expose.
The data on frauds in the banking system was compiled by RBI based on information filed by the banks.
A total of Rs 24,828 crore was involved in 29,653 cases of fraud detected in India’s nationalised banks between 2009-10 and 2012-13, the latest RBI data show. Overall, the amount lost to fraud in the banking sector quadrupled from Rs 2,038 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 8,646 crore in 2012-13.
In all, a mind-boggling 1.6 lakh frauds took place between 2009-10 and 2012-13.
Less susceptible
Private sector banks saw frauds that involved smaller sums than the public sector banks. Among the lot, old private sector banks seemed the least susceptible to fraud as they accounted for just 1.3 per cent of total fraud cases, the sum involved was 5.7 per cent of the total. In the case of new private sector lenders, despite registering 55.2 per cent of the total cases, the total sum involved was 7.2 per cent of the total quantum lost to fraud.
Foreign banks, too, seem to have a better track record than state-run lenders when it comes to preventing fraud. Despite lodging 27.3 per cent of the total cases, the money lost to such frauds was just 4.1 per cent of the total amount. The smaller amounts involved in fraud cases in private and foreign banks seem to indicate a greater level of due diligence when it comes to large sums of money.
This pattern becomes clear through a perusal of the fraud cases reported by various types of banks in terms of their size. The data show that over 94 frauds involving a sum of over Rs 50 crore were reported by nationalised banks, including SBI, in the 2009-10 to 2012-13 period, adding up to a whopping Rs 10,081.7 crore.
The private sector, on the other hand, reported only six such cases and foreign banks three.
But in the case of frauds involving a sum less than Rs 1 lakh, the numbers clearly show that the public sector exercises more restraint than the private sector. Not only did the nationalised banks report less cases, the sum lost to such frauds was less than in the case of private and foreign banks.