Security Challenge, Bank Fraud and Commercial Bank Performance in Nigeria: An Evaluation

The issues of insecurity and fraud in the banking sector of the Nigerian have become the concern of everyone. Achumba, Ighomereho


Introduction
Fraud according to Adeniji (2004) and Asuquo (2005) is an intentional act by one or more individuals among management, employees or third parties which results in a misrepresentation of financial statement.Fraud has been defined as a deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.It is a deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.The issue of insecurity and fraud in the banking sector is an interruption to the roles banks play towards economic development of the country.The financial sector in Nigeria is faced with deep security challenges, institutional and environmental frauds which threaten greatly the business growth, and the confidence of the public in the banking sector.It is good to mention here that banks have no other asset to offer to customers except confidence, and the problem of fraud has affected the confidence negatively-resulting in poor performance.
The increasing incidence of insecurity and frauds affect the already survival and viability of the banking sector.Fraud is not unique to the banking sector but due to the product which the banks deal on -cash and Nigeria is cash based economy, no area of banking system is immune to fraudsters, not even the operational security.The characteristic of this economy is that the cash will be physically held and touched.In Nigeria, studies indicate that more than 90% of funds are outside the banking sector as against the developed world where the money in circulation is 4% and 9% in the UK and US respectively.This explains the reason for the fragile nature of our banking system.Transacting with physical cash is prone to either fraud or when armed robbers attack, they will do away with the money.Numerous banks have had attack of armed robbers.This has marred the operations of the banks.Some bankers and customers lost their lives in the hands of robbers as well as bank property.Insiders also contribute to the success of operations of many armed robbers by giving information to the robbers.Many banks have to close some of their branches as a result paralyzed economic activities of armed robbery attacks on such branches.
The increasing rate of insecurity and fraud in the banking system, if not arrested might pose serious threats to the stability and the survival of individual banks and the performance of the industry as a whole (G.O. Nwankwo, 1991).Lamenting on the ugly impact of insecurity and fraud in banks, Okoro (2003) said that fraud has left untold hardship on the lives of bank owners, staff, customers and family members as most bank failures are always associated with large scale of frauds.Fraud in bank shakes the foundation and credibility of the affected banks in Nigeria resulting in some of the banks being distressed thus impacting negatively on the nation economy.
Banks play a role in determining and influencing the course of economic development of the country.Thus, as financial institutions that serve as intermediaries between surplus units and deficit units in the economy, the extent to which banks successfully and efficiently perform the intermediation function profoundly determines not only the level of public trust in the banking system but also the performance of the banks themselves as well as the general economy.The effect of insurgency is gradually destabilizing the banking structures.Banks are no longer safe and work environment not secure for the workforce in the sector.

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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the insecurity challenge and fraud in the banking sector and their implication on the banks performance and to propose strategies for the prevention of fraud and effective security management in the banking sector.Above all, this study will bridge the observed gap in the literature.

Objectives
In evaluating fraud and security challenge as they affect bank performance and the impact to Nigerian economy, this paper intends to achieve the following objectives: 1. To examine whether there is a significant relationship between losses caused by bank frauds, insecurity and earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria 2. To evaluate the impact of fraud and insecurity cases on the earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria 3. To examine whether there is significant relationship between the number of staff involved in the fraud cases and earnings before tax of Commercial banks.
4. To find out if there any significant relationship between bank insecurity challenge, fraud and the earning before tax of Commercials banks in Nigeria.
5. To evaluate the direction of causality between the incidence of fraud, insecurity challenge and bank performance in Nigeria.

Hypotheses
1.This is no significant relationship between losses caused by bank frauds, insecurity and earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria 2. There is no significant relationship between fraud, insecurity cases and earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria 3.There is no significant relationship between the numbers of staff involved in the fraud cases and earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria.
4. There is no significant relationship between bank insecurity challenge, fraud and the earning before tax of Commercials banks in Nigeria.

5.
There is no significant long run relationship between the incidence of fraud, insecurity challenge and performance of commercial banks in Nigeria.

Review of Related Literature
A review of earlier studies that have been undertaken with respect to the nature and extent of the relationship between insecurity challenge, fraud and the performance of banks is the focus of this section.However, it is necessary to start with the concept and definition of fraud in the banking system in order to aid our understanding of the issues involved.

The Concept and Meaning of Bank Fraud and Insecurity
Fraud can be defined as "any behavior by which one person intends to gain a dishonest advantage over another".In other words, fraud is an act or omission which is intended to cause wrongful gain to one person and wrongful loss to the other, either by way of concealment of facts or otherwise.The impact of fraud and insecurity has always been negative to both banks and society at large.Fraud can also be defined as intentional deceitful act for gain with the intention of concealment.It involves ~ 4 ~ deprivation of the asset, money or any item for which the fraud was committed from the rightful owner.
For Idolor (2010), fraud usually requires theft and manipulation of records, often accompanied by concealment of the theft as well as conversion of the stolen assets or resources into personal assets or resources.Adewunmi (1986) in his explanation of fraud identifies socio -economic lapse in society such as misplacement of social values in the pursuit of wealth and high society expectation from bank staff and the subsequent desire of the staff to live up to such expectations as contributory factor to fraud.
Another theory of fraud states that banks have become persistent targets of men of underworld mainly because banks are seen as the richest organization in any country.Above all, the life styles of those working in the banks are so flashy that those out there would like know what is in there.
Again, in order to make the concept of insecurity easy to comprehend, there is need to explain the concept of security.Akin (2008) explain security as "a situation that exists as a result of the establishment of measures for the protection of persons, information and property against hostile persons, influences and actions".When there is security, people in a society can go about their normal daily activities without any threats to their lives or properties.It consists of all measures designed to protect and safeguard the citizens, the resources of individuals, groups, businesses and the nation against sabotage or violent occurrence (Ogunleye, 2010).According to Igbuzor (2011) it demands safety from chronic threats and protection from harmful disruption.The concept of insecurity connotes different meanings such as: absence of safety; danger; hazard; uncertainty; lack of protection, and lack of safety.According to Beland (2005) insecurity is a state of fear or anxiety due to absence or lack of protection.Achumba et al. (2013) defines insecurity from two perspectives.First, insecurity is the state of being open or subject to danger or threat of danger, where danger is the condition of being susceptible to harm or injury.Secondly insecurity is the state of being exposed to risk or anxiety, where anxiety is a vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some misfortune.Owolabi (2010) noted that the problem of fraud in the banking industry is not limited to any economy, nation, continent or environment.Fraud and fraudulent activities ultimately result in bank failure.

Types of Bank Frauds
Fraud has been defined as a deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.Some researchers defined fraud as deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.Frauds manifest in different ways.In Nigeria, the banks' transactions are highly cash based.This makes them susceptible to frauds in thefts and embezzlement.The following are type of fraud:

Causes of Bank Fraud
Many researchers maintain the fact that the causes of fraud are grouped into two major classes: institutional factors and environmental or societal factors.The institutional factors are those that concern the internal environment of the bank, while environmental or societal factors are those which result from the influence of the environment or society on the banking industry.Ojo (2008) classified the causes of bank frauds and forgeries into institutional or endogenous and the environmental or exogenous factors.Some of the endogenous factors he identified include weak internal control system, inexperienced staff and poor remuneration while among the exogenous factors are low moral values in the society, lack of effective deterrent and punishment as well as fear of negative publicity.− Societal value: In the society today, possession of wealth determines the reputation ascribed to a person as a result all sorts of things have to be done in order to the richest person in town.
− Lack of effective punishment: Lack of effective deterrent such as heavy punishment could be a factor that contributes to the high perpetration of frauds in financial institutions.
The findings of Abiola (2009), Abdul-Rasheed, Babaita and Yinusa (2012), Ojo (2008), Idolor (2010), Akindele (2011), Bwengye (2013), Aderibigbe (1999) affirm that the above mentioned factors cause fraud in the banking sector.The results of their studies reveal that there is significant relationship between banks' profit and total amount of funds involved in fraud.Ojigbede (1986) and Adewunmi (1986) also maintain that the major cause of fraud in banks in Nigeria is traceable to the general dishonesty in the society.Since there is corruption in all facets of the Nigerian life, banks cannot be an exception.He also mentioned other causes of bank fraud which include lack of call over system, lack of regular and non -notified relation.

Impact of Fraud in Banks
Uchenna and Agbo (2013) evaluated the impact of fraud and fraudulent practices on the performance of banks in Nigeria within the period 2001-2011 and the result showed that fraud has adverse impact on bank performance.Okpara (2008) found that one of the factors that impacted the most on the performance of the banking system in Nigeria was fraudulent practices.

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The adverse impacts of insecurity and frauds on banks are very destructive to the operational activities and reputation of the banking sector.The impact of fraud in the sector include: inadequate liquidity, inability of bank to meet the demand of the customers and other obligations, erosion of the bank's capital, poor asset base, excess liability, insolvency and liquidation.The failure of banks eventually will cause the workers to lose their jobs.The bank will no longer render services to the customers, depositors will lose their deposits, saving and investor will suffer loss of investment.Further, the role of bank in the economy will cease and standard of living will be negatively impacted.Frauds deplete shareholders' funds and lead to loss of money belonging to customers causing embarrassment to the Board and Management.The losses cause reduction in the volume of available resources.Frauds can destroy the economy of a nation and its sovereignty.An example, when Nigerian sovereignty was called into question and its international trade threatened when a foreign power issued an ultimatum to its (Nigerian) national assembly to pass a bill to check on financial malpractice in the country.Where the instruction was not carried out, the country would have faced international sanctions.Above all, it heightens the cost of operations of banks.All the studies examined confirm that insecurity and fraud have made ugly impact on bank performance as well as the economy, as a whole.

Suggested Measures to Prevent Fraud and Manage Insecurity in the Banking Sector
A major and fundamental characteristic of commercial banks is that it creates money.This peculiar feature distinguishes commercial banks from the non-banking sector.Besides this, confidence and trust provide the foundation upon which banks are built.It, therefore, means that when this confidence is eroded, as a result of fraud and insecurity, banks collapse.It is to check such negative occurrences that necessitated the introduction of internal control mechanisms which consist of audit and internal checks in the banks.Indeed, the requirement of the Sarbanes Oxley is for companies to maintain strong and effective internal control over the recording of transactions and preparation of financial statements.This is to avoid window dressing of financial statements.
Similarly, Musa (1986), Sydney (1986) and Sanusi (1986) among other scholars have also identified some management control mechanisms aimed at preventing fraud in banks, Sanusi (1986) enumerated some of the existing fraud prevention and detection measures to include dual control operational manual, graduated limits of authority, limit and reports.
There is no doubt that the survival and profitability of financial institutions are largely hinged on the existence of an effective fraud prevention and detection mechanisms.In this regard, banks and government should work together to engage reputable foreign experts in fraud prevention and detection and security management to save the nation from the embarrassment associated with the increasing cases of bank fraud and insecurity.Since banks play an important role in the growth and development of the economy, nothing should be spared to ensure that they retain the confidence of the people.Every fraud has a human factor, therefore, employment procedure in the bank should be streamlined, to ensure that only professional of high integrity are given jobs there.In addition, regular staff auditing should be embarked upon to identify and remove bad eggs from the system.Members of staff /or their guarantors should be made to deposit a specific substantial amount to serve as a check on the conduct of the staff, so that, in case he/she is involved in fraud the job and the deposited money would be lost by the affected staff.
It is also necessary to carry out audit checks on all transactions as soon as they are made because delay might have dire consequences on the bank.Similar checks should also be carried out on vouchers raised for expenses (printing, stationeries, stock, office equipment etc.) Market surveys should be conducted before approvals are given for the purchases.Members of the Board of Directors should not just be people, who have stakes in the banks but should be knowledgeable in banking and accounting, to enable them carry out their supervisory role effectively.
These measures, we believe, will help to reduce the increasing rate of fraud and acts of insecurity in Nigerian banking sector.

Methodology and Data
In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the impact of insecurity and fraud on the performance of Commercial banks in Nigeria was evaluated.E-View Package was used to analyses the data.The relationship between bank performance and indicators of insecurity and fraud are captured in the multiple regression model specified as follows: (1) To estimate the multiple regression model specified in equation ( 1) above, annual data of the specified variables were sourced from the Annual Reports of the Nigerian Deposit and Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for the period 1991-2013.The data relate to aggregate returns made to the NDIC by all the insured Commercial banks in Nigeria for the specified period.Table 1 in the appendix presents the aggregate data which were analyzed with the aid of the econometric software package E-Views.

Analysis and Results
The analysis and results of the study are presented in this section beginning with a summary of the descriptive statistics as shown in Table 2 in the appendix.

Summary of Descriptive Statistics
From Table 2 (see appendix), the mean value of (EBT) is 83782.32 with a standard deviation of 361889.4while the mean value for ELF is 4343.535with standard deviation of 6555.545.For NFC, the mean value is 985.2273 and standard deviation of 852.9354 while NSF has a mean value of 427.6818 and standard deviation of 176.1056.Lastly, VFC has a mean value of 29398.90 and a standard deviation of 81339.41.

Correlation Matrix
The correlation matrix for all the variables in the model is presented in Table 3 in the appendix.The table shows that the correlation between ELF and NFC is 0.186860; between ELF and NSF is 0.031075.The correlation between NSF and NFC is -0.146160 while that between VFC and NFC is -0.119695.In all, it is evident that the variables are not perfectly correlated.

Level Series Multiple Regression Analysis
In Table 4 in the appendix, the results of the estimated level series multiple regressions are presented.The estimated results show an adjusted R of approximately 69.37%, an F-statistic of 11.75775 and a D-W statistic value of 1.466289 which suggests the presence of positive autocorrelation in the estimated model.This therefore means that the results of the estimated level series multiple regression models cannot be relied upon for analysis and policy making.

Unit Root Tests
The results of the ADF unit root tests conducted on the variables are as shown in Table 5 in the appendix, The ADF unit root test results indicate that ail the variables are integrated of order one.That means, they become stationary after the first differencing.

Cointegration Test
Having established that the variables in equation ( 1) are all integrated of order one, the Johansen cointegration test (Johansen, 1991) is conducted to examine whether there is any long-run relationship between the dependent and independent variables.Table 6 in the appendix shows the results of the Johansen cointegration test which assumes a linear deterministic trend in the data and conducted with a lag interval of 1 to 1.The test indicates that there are two co integrating equations at the 5% level of significance.The test therefore confirms the existence of two long-run dynamic combinations of the dependent and independent variables in the bank performance-fraud and insecurity relationship.

Error Correction Mechanism
Given the existence of a long run relationship among the variables, we applied the error correction mechanism to examine the dynamic behavior of the model when confronted with short run shocks.Table 7 in the appendix presents the results of the over-parameterized error correction model estimated using the E-Views.Subsequently, the parsimonious error correction model estimates were derived by employing the general to specific approach.The results of the parsimonious ECM are as shown in Table 8 in the appendix.
The parsimonious ECM estimates are obviously more robust than the level series results in Table 4 in the appendix given a D-W statistic value of approximately 2.04 which indicates the absence of autocorrelation in the ECM model.The adjustedR 2 of the model is approximately 61.83% indicating that the independent; t variables jointly explain about 61.83% of the total variation in EBT, the dependent variable.Furthermore, the F-statistic is 4.47 with a p-value of 0.024 which is significant and means that the model is a good fit.However, the error correction coefficient (ECM01) of 0.113235 is not appropriately signed and is also not significant at 0.4846.

Hypothesis 1
The estimated results show that ELF has an inverse relationship with EBT as expected and is significant at 5% level of significance given a t-statistic of-3.40 and p-value of D.0093.Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative which says there is a significant relationship between the expected losses caused insecurity and fraud cases and the earnings before tax of ~ 9 ~ Commercial banks in Nigeria.Therefore when the losses caused by bank insecurity and fraud are on the high side, the percentage increase in the earnings before tax of commercial banks will reduce.

Hypothesis 2
From Table 8 in the appendix, NFC also has an inverse relationship with EBT in line with apriority expectation, with a coefficient value of-0.477882, a t-statistic value of -2.7>:9644 and p-value of 0.0259.Number of fraud cases and insecurity (NFC) therefore is significant at the 5% level of significance.We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative which says that the number of fraud cases and insecurity challenge have a significant impact on the earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria.The results also indicate that NFC lagged one period is appropriately signed and also significant at the 5% level of significance.

Hypothesis 3
Number of Staff involved in fraud cases (NSF) demonstrates an inverse relationship inverse relationship: (This is the relationship between two numbers in which an increase in the value of one number results in a decrease in the other) with EBT as expected but is not significant with a tstatistic of 1.505383 and a p-value of 0.1706.The null hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between the number of staff involved in fraud cases and the earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria is accepted.

Hypothesis 4
The relationship between volume of fraud cases (VFC) and earnings before tax (EBT) is positive contrary to theoretical expectation but is significant since the t-statistic is 4.202416 and p-value is 0.0030.We therefore reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative which says that there is a significant relationship between volume of fraud cases and the earnings before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria.

Granger Causality Test
To test hypothesis 5 which is formulated to examine the direction of causality between the incidences of fraud .in the Nigerian banking sector and Commercial bank performance, the Granger causality test was employed with an optimal lag of 2. The Granger causality test according to Granger (1969) is used for testing the short run direction of causality between variables say Y and X.The test is based en estimating the following bivariate regressions stated below: where Y t and X t are the variables, of interest while u 1t and u 2t are the disturbance terms assumed to be uncorrelated (Gujarati, 2009).
The results of the Pairwise Granger Causality tests are presented in Table 9 in the appendix.The causality test results reveal that there is a uni-directional causality relationship running from ELF and VFC to EBT respectively.However, the results show no Granger causality relationship among NFC, NSF and EBT respectively.Therefore, we reject 'the null hypothesis of no Granger causality relationship with ~ 10 ~ respect to ELF, VFC and EBT respectively and accept the null hypothesis of no Granger causality with respect to NFC, NSF sad EBT respectively.

Discussion of Findings
The empirical findings of the study demonstrate an inverse relationship between three (3) of the four ( 4 The observed inverse and significant relationship between insecurity challenge, fraud and bank performance in this study vividly demonstrates that an increase in the incidence of insecurity and bank fraud have negative impact on bank performance.The results of the Granger causality tests are also in consonance with theoretical expectation and underscore the uni-directional causality from fraud to bank performance.However, the observed positive but significant relationship between Volume (Amount) of Fraud cases (VFC) and earnings of Commercial banks in the parsimonious ECM estimates is contrary to apriori expectation and calls for further enquiry.This could be due to specification error or the presence of multi-collinearity in the independent variables.

Conclusions
This paper evaluates the impact of insecurity and fraud on the performance of commercial banks in Nigeria as well as the direction of causality between insecurity, fraud and bank performance.On the basis of the findings, we concluded that: − There is a negative and significant relationship between Expected Losses caused by insecurity challenges, Fraud cases and Earnings before tax (EBT) of commercial banks in Nigeria.
− There is a negative and significant relationship between Number of insecurity, Fraud cases and Earning before Tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria.
− There is a positive and significant relationship between Volume of insecurity, Fraud cases and Earning Before Tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria − There is a negative but insignificant relationship between Number of Staff involved in fraud cases and Earning before Tax of Commercial banks.
− Granger causality tests demonstrate that there is a uni-directional causality relationship from Expected Losses caused by insecurity challenges and Fraud cases, Volume of insecurity and Fraud cases to Earnings before Tax of Commercial banks respectively.
In the light of the observed negative impact which insecurity and fraud have on bank performance, the following recommendations were made: − Foreign experts should be involved in insecurity and fraud prevention.− Members of staff /or their guarantors should be made to deposit a specific substantial amount to serve as a check on the conduct of the staff, so that, in case he/she is involved in fraud the job and the deposited money would be lost by the affected staff.
− The issue of check and audit should be done on every transaction immediately it is done because delay may be dangerous.
− Each voucher rose for expenses (printing of stationeries, stock and equipment) should be thoroughly checked and market survey should be conducted before giving approval for purchases.These will help deter fraud in the banking system.

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bank documents over-invoicing of purchases among others -Fraudulent loans -Forgery and altered cheques Institutional factors are as follows: − Poor in internal control system − bad management symbolized by incompetence − inadequate supervision − poor leadership − inadequate controls − lack of proper co-ordination of the various operational activities − corruption and ineptitude − Inappropriate personnel policies of the financial institutions − lack of or ineffective corporate governance − staff infidelity − lack of self-discipline, greed The environment or society factors are as follows.
before tax of Commercial banks in Nigeria (N million) used as an indicator of bank performance ELF = Expected losses from insecurity and fraud cases (N million) NFC -Number of fraud cases NSF = Number of Staff involved in fraud cases VFC = Volume (Amount) involved in fraud cases (N million) 3.1.Data β 0 , β 1 , β 2 , β 3 , and β 4 are the parameter coefficients of the model where all the indicators of fraud are expected to have an inverse relationship with Earnings before tax (EBT).That is β 0 , β 1 , β 2 , β 3 , and β 4 .
) indicators of fraud and insecurity employed in the study and earnings before tax of commercial banks in Nigeria.Specifically, the indicators are Expected Losses on Fraud and insecurity (ELF), Number of Fraud Cases (NFC) and Number of Staff Involved in Fraud Cases.The observed results are in agreement with apriori expectations and corroborate earlier works such as Nwankwo (2013), Ikpefan (2007), Kanu and Okorafor (2013) as well as Abdul-Rasheed et al. (2012) who found a significant relationship between bank fraud and bank performance in Nigeria.

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Professionals with integrity who have image to protect should be employed in the banks.− Number of workers in the banking sector should be reduced.− Board of Directors should be knowledgeable in accounting and banking and must have stakes in the bank.

Table 4 .
Level series OLS multiple regression results

Table 9
Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit Root Test on D (EBT) Augmented Dickey-Fuller Unit'Root Test on D (NSF)