NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Some $5.2 million in payment fraud complaints were made in 2020, the Central Bank of The Bahamas has revealed, with debit cards amounting for nearly 70 percent of those cases.
The bank and trust company regulator’s 2020 annual report revealed that the total number of reported fraud cases processed by commercial banks for cheques, debit and credit cards totaled 3,317, with a value of $5.2 million.
“Disaggregated by type, cases involving debit cards accounted for 68.6 percent of the total at 2,276, with an associated value of $0.9 million (17.9 percent of the total value),” according to the Central Bank.
“Credit card fraud represented 29.8 percent of the total cases, for a corresponding value of $1 million (19.9 percent of the total value).”
According to Central Bank, 95.9 percent of fraudulent cases were reported on New Providence, where the majority of bank customers also reside.
The Central Bank noted that as usage of cheques continues to diminish, the cheque fraud cases represented a marginal 1.6 percent of all reported instances, but the associated value was almost two-thirds of the corresponding total ($3.2 million).
“Declining use of cheques — with the exception of large value transactions — continued, with the number of instruments contracted by 35.9 percent to 1.4 million, extending a 9.8 percent falloff in the previous year,” according to the Central Bank.
“Likewise, the related value fell by 36.3 percent to $4.6 billion, in contrast to the prior year’s slight uptick of 0.2 percent to $7.2 billion.”
It further noted: “The number of cards issued or renewed by commercial banks declined further by 2.7 percent to 90,093, following a 3.4 percent reduction the previous year, while the corresponding balances owed fell by 10.1 percent to $245.4 million.
“In terms of the breakdown, the number of issued cards with spending limits of under $5,000 declined by 6.5 percent to 58,327, while the aggregate debts on these accounts fell by 8.8 percent to $92.5 million.
“By contrast, the number of cards with limits between $5,000 and $10,000 grew by 4.4 percent to 18,830, however, the value of unpaid balances decreased by 9.4 percent to $66.4 million.
“In a similar trend, accounts with limits of over $10,000 rose by 6.7 percent to 12,936, still with a related value decrease of 11.9 percent to $86.5 million.”
Elsewhere, the regulator noted that at the end of December 2020, it maintained custody of 44,280 dormant facilities, with balances totaling $92.80 million, denominated in eight currencies. Assets transferred to the government in 2020 were estimated at $3.9 million, as compared to the initial $40.5 million in 2019.
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