The RBI Annual Report shows that frauds reported by banks and other financial institutions, in value terms, more than halved in the 2021-22 fiscal, despite the number of instances of frauds increasing by nearly a fourth. Do keep in mind that the RBI data considers frauds of Rs 1 lakh and above only.

While private sector banks reported maximum number of frauds, public sector banks contributed maximum to the fraud amount over the past three years.

There continues to be a significant time-lag between the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection. RBI data shows that 93.73 percent of the frauds in 2021-2022 by value occurred in previous financial years. These reported frauds were predominantly in loan portfolios, followed by cards.

Last fiscal, frauds to the tune of Rs 60,414 crore were reported, down 56.28 percent from the Rs 1.38 lakh crore in 2020-2021. In terms of number of frauds, banks and other financial entities reported 23.69 percent higher frauds at 9,103 in 2021-22 as against 7,359 frauds the previous financial year.

In terms of number of frauds, private banks reported almost 59 percent of them in 2021-22, up from about 50 percent in 2020-21.

In terms of the amount involved, public sector banks accounted for over 66 percent.

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