Banks report 30% jump in fraud amount in Apr-Sep 2025: RBI

During the previous financial year, private sector banks accounted for 59.3 per cent of the total number of frauds reported, while public sector banks accounted for 70.7 per cent of the amount involved.

The total amount involved in various banking frauds surged 30 per cent to Rs 21,515 crore in the first six months of the current fiscal, compared to Rs 16,569 crore in the year-ago period, according to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report.

However, based on the date of reporting by banks, the total number of frauds decreased to 5,092 in H1 FY26, as against 18,386 in the corresponding period of last year, the RBI said in its report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2024-25.

In FY25, based on the date of reporting by banks, the amount involved in frauds increased three times to Rs 34,771 crore from Rs 11,261 crore in FY24. The total number of frauds declined from 36,052 to 23,879 in FY25.

The report attributed the jump in the amount involved in frauds to “re-examination and reporting afresh of 122 fraud cases amounting to Rs 18,336 crore after ensuring compliance with the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India dated March 27, 2023”.

Based on the date of occurrence of frauds, during 2024-25, the share of card / internet frauds in the total stood at 66.8 per cent in terms of number of cases. In terms of amount, the share of advances-related frauds was 33.1 per cent.

Within private lenders, card/internet-related frauds accounted for the largest share by number, while frauds related to advances constituted the largest share by value in 2024-25. In contrast, PSBs reported the highest share of frauds related to advances, both in terms of number of cases and the amount involved. During 2024–25, the share of card/internet frauds declined across all bank groups in both numbers (7,756 from 27,663) and amount involved (Rs 252 crore from Rs 1,192 crore).

The share of advances-related frauds, both in terms of number and amount, increased across all bank groups (except for PSBs in terms of amount), primarily due to a significant portion of reclassified frauds being associated with advances.