KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 — Fraud by bank employees is getting more serious as losses incurred by banks due to money swindled by staff has increased to RM473.82 million over the last five years.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Department’s Head of Unit for Banking and Financial Crimes Supt Harjinder Kaur Gurdial Singh said overall the banks suffered losses amounting to RM789,106,376 for various fraud during the period.
In 2008 it was RM10.1 million, RM27.1 million in (2009), RM85.4 million (2010), RM84.5 million (2011), RM191.8 million (2012) and RM390 million (November 2013), she told reporters during a special interview on Commercial CID crime here today.
She said among fraud involving bank employees was withdrawing money from accounts not active for more than three years and by not crediting cash deposits into customers’ accounts.
Bank branch managers were also found abusing overdraft facilities by abusing accounts of customers.
“Our investigation found 60 per cent of the bank fraud was committed by their own employees, 30 per cent by the management while 10 per cent were by the account holders themselves,” she said.
Apart from cases of fraud involving bank employees, other fraud involved criminal breach of trust (CBT), document forging, misappropriation of properties and attempts to cheat through banks said Harjinder Kaur.
“What is more shocking is that 60 per cent of bank fraud was committed by women compared to only 40 per cent by men, while 70 per cent of the victims to fraud were men,” she said.
She also said bank officers and employees were advised to comply with standard operating procedures (SOP) when processing loan applications from customers.
“Members of the public are advised to be cautious with their security details and personal documents which could be abused by third parties,” she said. — Bernama
