Key reasons for rising fraud incidents include large-scale remote working models, increase in customers using non-branch banking channels, and the limited use of forensic tools to identify potential red flags, the survey reveals.

Retail banking was identified as a major contributor to frauds, with 53% respondents of the survey indicating that they had experienced more than 100 such incidents since 2020, a 29% increase since the previous edition. Similarly, the non-retail segment saw an average of 20 fraud incidents, as highlighted by 56% of survey respondents, a rise from the previous 22%.

Additionally, data theft, cybercrime, third party-induced fraud, bribery and corruption, and fraudulent documentation have been identified as the top five concerns with over 42% of respondents (cumulative) reporting to be victims of these, data in the survey suggests.

Survey respondents indicated that the top three outcomes of Covid-19 on their fraud risk management (FRM) function will be increased dependence on analytical tools for fraud monitoring and detection (25%), the need to create awareness about fraud among customers and employees (23%), and a change in the target operating model to enhance capabilities of remote FRM function (21%).