Fraud Surge: Access Holdings Loses N1.6bn To Forgery, Theft in 2025

Access Holdings Plc, the parent company of Access Bank Plc, has recorded a massive loss of N1.64 Billion to fraud and forgery in the first half of 2025.

This represents a significant increase compared to June 2024, when the bank recorded about N464 million loss to fraud and forgery.

“This report represents the fraud and forgery incidents that occurred during the period. It is a summation of attempted and successful fraud incidents. The actual loss that was incurred by the Bank for the period was N1.64Bn (June 2024: N464.12Mn).”

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These details are contained in the bank’s recently released financial report for the 2025 half-year.

In the details provided, the financial institution lost N831,956 to presentation of forged instrument, N617,110 to fraudulent transfers, N173,121 to cash thefts, and N20,897 (All in millions) to electronic fraud in the year under review.

As a group, Access Holdings Plc reported a pre-tax profit of N320.57 billion for the period ended June 30, 2025, representing an 8.12% year-on-year (YoY) decline from N348.92 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.

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Similarly, post-tax profit fell by 23.25% YoY to N215.92 billion, compared to N281.33 billion in H1 2024.

However, top-line performance remained resilient, with gross earnings rising by 13.81% YoY to N2.50 trillion.

Access Holdings Plc’s overall performance in H1 2025 remained largely driven by its banking subsidiary, which accounted for the bulk of group profitability, posting a pre-tax profit of N303.0 billion and post-tax profit of N199.3 billion