CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The level of fraud in the present day Nigeria has assumed on epidemic dimension. It has eaten deep into every aspect of our life to the extent that a three years old child talks about 419, the name given to the newly discovered fees fraud that is hunting us a nation. Fraud is defined as “deceit or tricking deliberately practiced in order to gain some advantages dishonestly.” For an action to constitute fraud therefore there must be a dishonest intention and the action must be intended to benefit the perpetrator to the detriment of another person.

Going by this definition, frauds in the Nigeria economy cannot be restricted to the banks alone. Although frauds cut across all sectors of the economy and that size of an enterprises usually determines the volume of frauds perpetrated, such problems as inadequate manpower, poor internal control system, inadequate incentives and unsuitable legal framework for dealing with offenders, downturn in the economy, recognition being accorded the wealthy people regardless of their sources of wealth play a major role in the perpetration of frauds. The fear now is the threats which this devilish and unscrupulous act will pos to the stability and survival of individual financial institution and the performance of the industry as a whole for one things, frauds result in huge financial losses to financial institutions and their customers, depletion of shareholders frauds and capital base as well as loss of confidence in financial institutions.

Frauds and foreign also have negative effect on the banking industry. Today, various banks cannot withstand the growing pressure of competition among various banks due to the monster called bank frauds. Equally, the confidence place on banks are fast eroding because some people new prefer keeping their money at their homes instead of keeping them in the banks. The fear is now ………….. that if this act is not arrested, it might deplete our resources because foreign investors might not find it wise to transact business via our banks.