MUMBAI: Banks and financial institutions in India reported 10,114 fraud cases involving Rs 48,021 crore during 2025-26, compared to 23,722 cases involving Rs 32,803 crore in 2024-25, according to the annual report released by the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.
The RBI said that although the number of fraud cases reported by public and private sector banks declined over the last three years, the amount involved in such frauds has continued to increase.
According to the report, frauds related to card, internet and digital payments recorded the highest number of cases during 2023-24 and 2024-25, while the advances category accounted for the largest share of frauds in 2025-26. In value terms, frauds remained concentrated in the advances category across all three years.
Public sector banks reported 5,418 fraud cases during 2025-26, lower than 6,916 cases in 2024-25 and 7,446 cases in 2023-24. However, the amount involved in frauds at state-owned banks rose sharply to Rs 35,709 crore during 2025-26 from Rs 23,617 crore in the previous fiscal and Rs 8,092 crore in 2023-24.
Private sector banks also registered a decline in the number of fraud cases, reporting 3,956 incidents during 2025-26 against 14,024 cases in 2024-25 and 23,965 cases in 2023-24. The amount involved in frauds at private banks increased to Rs 11,399 crore in 2025-26 from Rs 8,927 crore in FY25 and Rs 2,667 crore in FY24.
Foreign banks reported 210 fraud cases involving Rs 290 crore during 2025-26, compared to 1,447 cases involving Rs 181 crore in the preceding year. Small finance banks reported 467 fraud cases involving Rs 114 crore, while payments banks recorded 47 fraud cases amounting to Rs 11 crore.
The report said that 8,640 fraud cases involving Rs 40,774 crore were reported under the advances category during the last fiscal year, compared with 7,924 cases involving Rs 30,367 crore in 2024-25 and 4,105 cases involving Rs 8,917 crore in 2023-24.
Frauds related to card, internet and digital payments fell sharply to 293 cases involving Rs 29 crore during 2025-26 from 13,332 cases involving Rs 517 crore in 2024-25 and 28,836 cases involving Rs 1,452 crore in 2023-24.
The RBI clarified that the data pertains to frauds of Rs 1 lakh and above reported during the year and noted that many of these frauds may have occurred several years earlier.
The central bank also said that the 2025-26 data includes fraud classification in 314 cases amounting to Rs 30,199 crore related to previous financial years, which were reported afresh after re-examination following the Supreme Court’s March 2023 judgment.
To strengthen cyber resilience among supervised entities, the RBI said it has operationalised the Cyber Range initiative through a state-of-the-art platform deployed at the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology. The platform facilitates cyber drill exercises based on simulated threat scenarios and incidents observed across supervised entities to improve preparedness and response capabilities against emerging cyber threats.
The RBI also said it will initiate a micro-data analytics project for cyber risk and review the risk-based approach for KYC and anti-money laundering supervision during the current financial year.
