Indian Banks Log Threefold Uptick in Fraud

Bank fraud in India nearly tripled during 2024, according to the country’s central bank.

In its annual report Thursday (May 29), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recorded 360 billion rupees ($4.2 billion) in fraud for the year that ended on March 31, up from 122.3 billion for the same period last year.

“Frauds have occurred predominantly in the category of digital payments (card/internet) in terms of number and primarily in loan portfolios (advances) in terms of value,” the report said.

“While card/internet frauds contributed [to the] maximum to the number of frauds reported by private sector banks, frauds in public sector banks were mainly in loan portfolios.”

The RBI noted that the increase was fueled in part by the inclusion of 122 fraud cases totaling 186.7 billion rupees. These cases had been removed from the fraud category in previous years, but were added back for this year following an Indian Supreme Court decision.

The report follows other recent reports from around the world showing increased levels of fraud, including findings Wednesday (May 28) by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

According to that report, 21% of U.S. adults experienced financial fraud in 2024, with 17% reporting they were victims of credit card-related fraud, while 8% reported another kind of fraud.

Also Wednesday, UK Finance released its annual report, which showed 3.3 million reported cases of fraud in Great Britain during 2024, a 12% increase over the prior year.

The report said this figure represented the largest number of cases in UK Finance’s series of comparable data, even as the monetary value of reported fraud, 1.17 billion pounds (about $1.58 billion), was more or less unchanged from year to year.

“While this points to a reduction in the average loss per case, criminals are targeting ever more victims in order to maintain flows of illicit funds with more people having to deal with the resulting stress, inconvenience, and emotional harm that entails,” the report said.

These findings are in keeping with research by PYMNTS Intelligence, showing that more than 40% of financial institutions (FIs) have seen an increase in fraud. Meanwhile, 70% of FIs say they have begun using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to fend off fraudsters.

“AI and ML make up only a portion of the tools bank executives rely on to fight fraud,” PYMNTS wrote in March. “Of the 10 North American FIs we surveyed, all say they rely on a mixture of in-house fraud prevention systems, third-party resources, and new technologies to protect their institutions and customers.”