Banks hit by record level of fraud

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KPMG said fraud cases against the financial services sector totalling £350 million came to court during the six months to the end of June, the highest figure recorded by the group's fraud barometer in its 20-year history.

The total dwarfed the previous highest figure of £200 million, which covered the whole of 1998. It warned that the figure was likely to get worse going forward as the full impact of the credit crunch unfolds.

KPMG said the record sum was fuelled in part by two big cases, namely an alleged £220 million attempt to hack into Sumitomo Matsui Banking Corporation's systems, and a £70 million attempted fraud within HSBC's securities services division.

But it added that even without these two cases, there was still more than £60 million of fraud against financial institutions coming to court, compared with just £37 million during the whole of 2007.

There were nine cases of mortgage fraud worth more than £20 million during the first half of the year, compared with only 10 cases worth £3.7 million throughout 2007.

Overall, there were 128 different fraud cases against all sectors totalling more than £631 million going through the courts during the first six months of the year, a substantial increase on the 91 cases worth £421 million during the previous six-month period.

Hitesh Patel, partner at KPMG Forensic, said: "The cases in this period's fraud barometer largely predate the credit crunch in terms of when the frauds were committed - the fear is that we will not see the real and full fraud impact of the crunch for another six or 12 months or even more, as businesses start to take a closer look at their operations in this difficult economic climate.

"The signs are that we could end up seeing some substantial losses being suffered."

Two-thirds of fraud by value and more than half by number were carried out by organised gangs, with the financial services sector the main target, followed by investors, and the previous number one target of Government offices.