RBI Data Shows 74% Increase In Bank Fraud Value Reported In FY19

On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its annual report for the financial year 2018-19. The data in the report showed a significant increase in bank fraud cases and also a higher number of counterfeit (fake) cash.

The report showed that there was a 15 percent rise in the number of bank fraud cases in FY19 to 6,800 when compared to the previous fiscal's 5,900. However, in terms of value, there was a 73.8 percent surge from Rs 41,167 crore to Rs 71,543 crore.

On average, banks took 22 months from the date of occurrence of the fraud to detect it. For frauds involving amounts greater than Rs 100 crore (which amounted to Rs 52,200 crore in 2018-19) took an average of 55 months to be detected.

Frauds detected at public sector banks were the highest, followed by private banks and foreign banks. PSU bank frauds rose from Rs 38,260 crore in FY18 to Rs 64,509 crore in FY19. In private and foreign banks, frauds detected amounted to Rs 5,515 crore in FY19 from Rs 2,478 crore.

As for counterfeit of notes, there was a 20 percent increase in their detection for Rs 10 notes, while Rs 20 and Rs 50 notes saw an 87 percent and 57 percent increase. Total counterfeited Rs 200 notes in FY19 rose significantly to 12,728 from mere 79 in the previous year.

Rs 500 notes saw the biggest surge in the number of counterfeited notes, that is by a striking 121 percent while in the case of 2,000 rupee notes, the spike was 22 percent.

Only the Rs 100 notes saw a decline of 7.5 percent.