Financial analyst, Ken Thompson is urging calm among depositors despite reported cases of fraud by some employees of banks in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Limited said, there is no need to panic since the banks have already taken steps to minimise the occurrence of such incidents.

The total monetary value involved in all reported fraud cases by financial institutions, both successful and attempted, for the year 2016 amounted to approximately GH¢244.32 million, according to the Finder newspaper.

The amount constitutes 1,001 fraud incidents in 2016 reported to the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the paper reported.

According to the publication, these cases were received from universal banks, Non–Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs), and Rural and Community Banks (RCBs).

This is contained in the 2016 annual Payment Systems Oversight report published by the BoG. 

The main fraud cases reported were suppression of customer accounts by staff of financial institutions, card fraud, forgery and alteration of documents, manipulation of accounts, and negotiable instruments. 

Others included the fraudulent collection of international remittances by persons not named as recipients, transactions involving cloned and stolen cheque, and fraudulent transfers through hacked email accounts, the report added.

Commenting on the issue on Super Morning Show on Joy FM Thursday, Mr. Thompson said: " a lot of work is being done to ensure that the risk is minimised.” 

“The staff of banks reflect the society; if we have a corrupt society [then] we’re going to get staff who are corrupt,” he told Kojo Yankson, host of the programme.

He was positive the 2017 report will see a reduction in the occurrence of such incidents since “the rewards for stealing money now are getting lower and lower.”

He disclosed that the Bank of Ghana has put in measures which make it very difficult for staff dismissed for committing such offences to find their way back into the banking industry. 

Such misconduct, he said, is also reported to the diplomatic community as well as the police for further investigation and prosecution where necessary.

“I can assure you next year should be much better…trust me the last thing you want is for people to take away your money because eventually, you [bank] would have to pay,” he promised.