Bank fraud cases more than halve but value climbs to ₹48,000 cr: RBI data
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Banks in the country reported fewer fraud cases in FY26 but the total amount involved rose to its highest in three years, driven by cheating in loans and advances and concentrated in state-owned lenders.
The industry reported frauds worth ₹48,021 crore in FY26, up 46.4 per cent from ₹32,803 crore in FY25, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its latest annual report. The fraud amount for FY26 is more than four times the ₹11,013 crore reported in FY24.
As many as 10,114 fraud cases were reported in FY26, down almost 57.4 per cent compared to 23,722 the previous year. The volume of frauds reduced by 71.7 per cent compared to 35,800 cases in FY24.
The data highlights a sharp three-year divergence: While the volume of reported frauds fell by more than two-thirds between FY24 and FY26, the value involved increased by 336 per cent.
“An assessment of bank group-wise fraud cases over the last three years indicates that although the number of frauds for public- and private-sectors banks have reduced, the amount involved has increased over the years”, the RBI said. While the highest number of frauds was reported under the card, internet and digital payments categories in FY24 and FY25, “advances” accounted for the largest share (85.5 per cent) in FY26.
“In value terms, frauds were concentrated in the advances category across the three years”, said the central bank.
Public-sector banks reported the largest share of frauds in FY26, suffering ₹35,709 crore in losses, up 51.2 per cent from ₹23,617 crore in FY25 and more than four times the ₹8,092 crore seen in FY24. Their share of total fraud amounts climbed to 74.5 per cent in FY26, up from 72 per cent in FY25 and 73.5 per cent in FY24.
Public-sector banks reported 5,418 fraud cases in FY26, declining from 6,916 in FY25 and 7,446 in FY24.
Private banks reported fraud cases amounting to ₹11,399 crore in FY26, up 27.7 per cent from ₹8,927 crore in FY25 and more than four times the ₹2,667 crore reported in FY24.
However, private banks accounted for only 23.7 per cent of the total amount involved in frauds in FY26 though they reported 39.1 per cent of all cases.
Frauds related to advances amounted to ₹40,774 crore in FY26, up 34.3 per cent from ₹30,367 crore in FY25 and 357.5 per cent higher than the ₹8,917 crore reported in FY24. Advances accounted for 84.9 per cent of the total amount involved in frauds in FY26, compared with 92.6 per cent in FY25 and 81 per cent in FY24.
The number of fraud cases linked to advances rose to 8,640 in FY26 from 7,924 in FY25 and 4,105 in FY24.
Frauds involving cards, internet banking and digital payments fell sharply both in value and volume terms. The number of digital payment frauds declined to 293 in FY26 from 13,332 in FY25 and 28,836 in FY24. The amount involved fell to ₹29 crore from ₹517 crore in FY25 and ₹1,452 crore in FY24.
Digital payment frauds accounted for 80.4 per cent of all cases in FY24. In FY26, their share dropped to 2.9 per cent.
Other kinds of fraud were relatively small compared with “advances”. Deposit-related frauds amounted to ₹377 crore in FY26, down 27.6 per cent from ₹521 crore in FY25 but more than the ₹240 crore reported in FY24.
The amount involved in the “others” category rose to ₹6,063 crore in FY26 from ₹971 crore a year earlier and ₹35 crore in FY24, increasing its share of total fraud amounts to 12.6 per cent from 3 per cent in FY25.
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