Banks lost Rs 2,017 cr in fraud in FY10: CBI

Over Rs 2,000 crore was lost by the country's banking sector in frauds during FY10 with more than 200 of these incidents involving deception of above one crore each, CBI Director AP Singh has said.

The CBI chief has warned the banks of latest trends emerging in banking frauds in areas like electronic payments, technology-related payments like RTGS, credit cards, ATM, cell banking, internet banking among others.

"Banking Sector has lost as much as Rs 1,883 crore and Rs 2,017 crore during FY09 and FY10, respectively. These include over 200 frauds of above Rs one crore during each year," he said during the 'Third Conference of Central Vigilance Officers of 31 Public Sector Banks and Financial Institutions' at the CBI headquarters here.

Singh said CBI's role was to investigate the criminality in bank frauds and it does not interfere in cases of prudent commercial judgement, even if such decisions involve risks or have resulted in losses to banks.

He called upon banks to adapt to changing technology and to sensitise its officers to new areas of fraud being used by scamsters.

Singh stated that involvement of banking officials in guiding investigating officers in scrutiny of financial statement, credit appraisal has enhanced the professionalism of CBI in detecting bank frauds.