Effect of Electronic Fraud on the Financial Performance of Banks in Nigeria

The study investigated the effect of electronic fraud on the financial performance of banks in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to investigate the effect of electronic fraud through online web transactions, evaluate the effect of electronic fraud through automated teller machine, to determine the effect of fraud through point of sale machine, and to investigate the effect of fraud through mobile phone USSD transactions on the financial performance of selected deposit money banks in Nigeria. Panel Generalized method of moments (GMM) was used to analyze the panel series of the model. The Hausman test indicated the random effect model as most fit for the estimation. The major findings of the study revealed that fraud through the automated teller machine (AEF) has significant negative impact on the financial performance of the deposit money banks in Nigeria. The panel regression result also revealed that fraud through the mobile phone channel (MPEF), and fraud through the online banking channel (OBEF) had significant negative effect on the financial performance of the banks studied. The study concluded that electronic fraud has significant negative relationship with the performance of banks. The policy implication of these findings holds for both management of banks and the financial sector authorities to engineer strategic fraud mitigation technology to strengthen confidence in the financial system. Based on the findings, the study recommended that there is an urgent need for effective monitoring of bank fraud which will allow for the growth of Nigeria deposit banks performance. This is necessary especially this period that the world is going cashless and e payment instrument are used for cashless banking system. And failure to do that, will affect customer’s confidence in the industry. It is also recommended that Bank fraud shall be reduced through effective supervision and regulation of banks by the monetary authorities so that financial industry will contribute to the economy.