INTRODUCTION

Fraudulent act in the banking industry” is of a peculiar concern to the monetary control and supervisory authority who are consigned with the safety of individual banks and the firmness of the banking industry.

Fraudulent act” is common in Nigeria banking industry, but clients as well as employees, temporary staff engage in fraud and forgeries in banks.

Frequent occurrence of fraud ultimately distracts the attention of the management and lead to increase in running cost.

Time and energy that would have been spent improving customer service would be expended in preventing fraud. Increasing instances of fraud and forgeries in our banks lately if not shaped would pose certain threats to the stability and survival of individual banks and the public presentation of the industry as a whole. Reported instances of fraud in merchant banks dropped significantly from 16 in 1997 to 9 during the year 1998 similarly, there was a decrease in the total quantity involved, from 187-59 million in 1997 to N67.35 million in 1998.

Fraud in whatever loss is limitless in classification. In the banking industry, there could be the presentation of forged checks granting of unauthorized loans unauthorized overdraft, position of fictitious credits, suppression of checks, fraudulent transfer and withdrawal and so on, Dr John Orjih in his text, defined fraud as the deliberate effort aimed at obtaining unlawful advantage at the hurt of another individual who is the true possessor of the store.

Awosanya, widely defined fraud as any deliberate action in whatever configuration, written, spoken, physically designed to deprive a legitimate owner or his or her asset, property or right.

Osborne, defined fraud as a means of obtaining material advantage by unfair or wrongful means involving certain moral responsibilities.