Durban — The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) 2022 crime statistics reveal a high rate of bank burglary, bank robbery and fraud in KwaZulu-Natal.
However, the banking industry recorded a 34% decrease in associated robbery incidents during 2022 and 38% decrease in associated losses to clients when compared to 2021, the statistics showed.
The report revealed that the sub-type of branch before deposit incidents decreased by 39% with financial losses in the same category decreasing by 52% in 2022 when compared to 2021.
It said that during 2021, branch before deposit incidents increased by 56% due to the limited number of clients permitted inside a branch, so perpetrators targeted bank clients on their way into the facility.
“The decrease in branch before deposit incidents can be attributed to the arrest of the main suspects in KwaZulu-Natal where most of the branch before deposit incidents were concentrated,” the report read.
It said that the main modus operandi used by perpetrators was to target victims who parked close to a branch in the parking area. The victims, identifiable by their bags seemingly full of cash, were targeted and robbed while exiting their vehicles.
The sub-type of inside branch incidents increased by 100% (12 incidents) during 2022 compared to six incidents during 2021. Arrests were made in the North West province where five incidents were reported during 2022.
Looking into burglary in the commercial private banking industry, the report revealed that Eastern Cape was the province with the highest number of reported branch burglary incidents (15) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (13).
Burglaries at state-owned banking institutions revealed that the Eastern Cape was the province with the highest number of reported branch burglary incidents (25%) followed by KwaZulu-Natal (14%) and North West province (14%).
On robberies at state-owned banking institutions, the report revealed that “the highest number of robberies at State Owned banking institutions was reported in KwaZulu-Natal (23%) followed by Eastern Cape (19%)”.
The report showed that there was a 17.6% decrease in fraudulent applications for VAF (Vehicle Asset Finance) with 16 559 reported incidents, compared to the previous year’s 20 103 reported occurrences. The data indicated that potential losses decreased by 20.9% from R7.3bn in 2021 to R5.7bn in 2022.
“Fortunately, during 2022, fraud detection systems implemented by banks proved effective in identifying and preventing the majority of reported fraudulent applications from being approved,” the report read.
It also revealed that nationally, more than half of the reported fraudulent applications in 2022 were concentrated in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with percentages of 38% and 30% respectively.
“The majority of fraudulent applications for home/ mortgage loans were primarily concentrated in Gauteng (62%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal (13%) and the Western Cape (13%),” the report read.
In 2022, unsecured fraud decreased by 5.6% with 10 235 incidents across various financial accounts including current, cheque and savings accounts, as well as personal and business loans, in comparison to the preceding year which saw 10 842 incidents.
“In 2022, Gauteng experienced the highest percentage of fraud cases at 66%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 14% and Western Cape at 7%, making them the three most affected provinces.”
The report revealed that 2022 saw Gauteng being most affected by credit card fraud (53.0%), followed by the Western Cape (28.9%) and Limpopo (6.5%). Card-not-present (CNP) (65.2%) and lost and/or stolen (20.5%) fraud transactions with a credit card were prominent in South Africa during 2022.
“Gauteng (43.3%), Western Cape (22.2%) and KwaZulu-Natal (11.2%) were the top three provinces affected by debit card fraud during 2022. 48.3% of fraudulent transactions in South Africa took place with a lost and/or stolen debit card followed by CNP (39.1%),” the report read.
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