Banking sector cautioned about rising fraud, graft

Growing fraud and graft in the banking sector are putting the country’s economy at risk of stagnation and calls for immediate action to address the situation, said Trevor Hills, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers advisory services. Hills, who was presenting a paper on fraud, corruption and bribery in the financial industry, noted that bribery creates bureaucracy, which affects efficiency in processing loans and, ultimately, stagnates investments.“Africa, and Rwanda in particular, is largely becoming a focal point for world investments due to the many business reforms that have been carried out. Therefore, combating economic crimes should be a great concern to all the stakeholders, especially those in the banking sector, to ensure this reputation is not compromised,” Hills said. This was during a breakfast meeting attended by top executives from the banking and insurance sectors that was organised by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) advisory services in Kigali on Tuesday.According to a new report by Transparent International, the level of graft in the local banking industry is increasing. The East Africa Bribery Index report for 2013 ranks banks as the sixth most corrupt institutions in the country with aggregate 22.8 of 100 (100 is the worst score). Banks were also ranked second as far as the size of bribe is concerned after central government, and were third most corrupt on the ‘national’ share of bribes (with 13.7 per cent) after local authorities and Police. The 2011 global economic survey indicated that 56 per cent of the economic crimes committed in the banking sector are by staff. Only 18 per cent is detected, leaving banks at the mercy of fraudsters. Thoithi Muniu, the director of forensic services at PwC, said most banks are vulnerable to fraud because of the loopholes in their information and technology systems. Muniu said that 41 per cent of the banks globally never conduct fraud risk assessment. Bernice Kimacia, a senior partner at PwC Rwanda, urged banks to embrace ICT in their operations, including mobile banking and electronic cash transfers, to detect and reduce economic crimes in the sector. “Crosschecking account signatories is one of the measures that can be used to reduce these cases,” noted Kimacia. Janan Sangano, the head of risk management at KCB Rwanda, said strengthening internal control systems and ensuring professional conduct and integrity are the best safeguards against fraud and graft in the banking industry.

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Banking sector cautioned about rising fraud, graft