The Bank of Ghana is expressing worry over the increasing involvement of employees of banks in reported cases of fraud in the financial sector, a situation likely to reduce confidence in the banking industry.

To this end, the Central Bank is charging the Committee for Co-operation between the Law Enforcement Agencies and Banking Community (COCLAB) to step up efforts in dealing with fraud cases coming from the industry.

Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Elsie Addo Awadzi in a speech to open a workshop for the committee charged members to concentrate attention on dealing with the menace before it gets out of hand.

“Key on your agenda for today’s meeting is to discuss Bank of Ghana’s recently published 2021 Fraud Report, which highlighted a disturbing prevalence of fraud in the banking sector, as reported by banks and other regulated institutions. Disturbing still, is the fact that most of the reported cases of fraud involve staff and contractors of these financial institutions”.

“Another worrying trend from the 2021 fraud report is the increasing levels of fraud associated with electronic money channels such as ATM fraud, mobile money fraud, and cyber fraud”, she pointed out.

She therefore charged members of COCLAB to take a critical look at these developments and identify concrete measures to help to address the underlying factors, so that the trend is reversed.

The workshop is part of collaborative efforts by the Central Bank and Law enforcement Agencies to deal with growing financial crimes in the banking industry.

The formation of COCLAB in Ghana was spearheaded by Bank of Ghana, building on INTERPOL’s 1988 Resolution, to help curb economic crime around the world.

The Bank of Ghana recently revived the Committee to provide a platform for strong collaboration among the banking industry, national security and law enforcement agencies, the Judiciary and other key Agencies, to step up the fight against financial crime.