Access Bank, one of Nigeria's largest financial institutions by assets, reported a significant surge in fraud losses during the first half of 2025 (H1 2025). The bank's fraud losses increased by 254.02% to ₦1.64 billion ($1.13 million) from ₦464.12 million ($320,478) recorded in H1 2024. This increase marks Access Bank's highest six-month fraud loss since June 2023, when it experienced losses of ₦5.46 billion ($3.77 million), primarily due to fraudulent transfers, withdrawals, and account reactivations.

In H1 2025, attempted fraudulent transactions amounted to ₦2.25 billion ($1.55 million), with ₦1.64 billion ($1.13 million) resulting in actual losses. The primary drivers of these losses were the presentation of forged instruments, which accounted for ₦831.96 million ($574,475), and fraudulent transfers, withdrawals, and account reactivations, costing the bank ₦617.11 million ($426,119). While fraudulent incidents stood at 1,289 in June 2025, which is lower than the 2,823 incidents in 2023 but higher than the 936 cases in June 2024, the value of losses significantly increased.

Despite the substantial jump in fraud losses, they still represent a small fraction, specifically 0.76%, of Access Bank's H1 2025 profit of ₦215.92 billion ($149.09 million). However, this trend highlights the banking sector's ongoing vulnerability to increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics. Industry-wide data from the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), which includes the Nigerian Bankers’ Committee and the Central Bank of Nigeria as members, further underscores this concern. FITC reported that fraud losses across Nigerian banks collectively jumped by 602.98% to ₦3.29 billion ($2.27 million) in Q1 2025, with reported cases rising by 7.63% to 12,347.

A comparison with other major Nigerian banks in H1 2025 shows varied outcomes: United Bank for Africa (UBA) managed to cut its fraud losses by 45.35% to ₦288 million ($198,866), while GTBank saw a 41.67% rise to ₦225.42 million ($155,654), which included a ₦177.29 million ($122,420) refund from a 2023 case. This increase in Access Bank's losses also comes despite significant investments in IT infrastructure and technology-related services. Access Bank increased its tech spending by 147.94% to ₦193.52 billion ($133.63 million) in 2024 and had already spent ₦69.45 billion ($47.96 million) this year.

FITC's analysis revealed that external actors were responsible for the vast majority of incidents, with 10,896 cases, compared to just 63 incidents attributed to insiders. Access Bank confirmed that no fraud involved management or employees in significant internal control roles. The most frequently reported incidents involved computers and web platforms (7,361 cases), mobile transactions (2,875 cases), and PoS terminals (1,559 cases).

In conclusion, FITC noted that Q1 2025 signals a pivot in fraud tactics from frequent small-value hits to targeted, high-impact operations. To counter this, financial institutions are advised to adopt a layered, adaptive, and intelligence-first approach, emphasizing interbank collaboration, staff accountability, and informed customer behaviour. This underscores that fraud is evolving into a 'value game' rather than solely a volume issue, requiring proactive and innovative strategies to stay ahead. The exchange rate used for calculations is ₦1,448.21 / $.