Deliberation of Fraud Triangle Theory: A Comparison among Public and Private Commercial Banks of Sindh, Pakistan

Abstract

The research has been conducted to apply the most fundamental concept of fraud triangle theory, introduced by Donald Cressey's in 1950-53, to private and public commercial banks of Sindh, Pakistan. According to this theory, Donald Cressey identified that when three-component/factor i-e pressure, opportunity, and rationalization, comes into an individual's life, he is very likely to commit fraud. Eight different hypotheses are drawn for this study to test the elements of the fraud triangle in public and private sector banks. The study adopted a primary source of data collection, with a sample size of 600 distributed to respondents of the two largest bank of Pakistan, i-e, the National Bank of Pakistan and Habib Bank Limited. The statistical Mann-Whitney U-Test applied to test the hypotheses. The results of the study disclosed that the employees in public sector banks in Sindh, facing more financial pressure, the internal control of public banks is also week; hence fraudsters find more opportunities to commit fraud and the employees working in public banks also behave rationalization for their illicit activities.