Examining the Relationship between the Number of Bank Branches and Reported Cases of Bank Fraud

Abstract

There has been an increase in the number of bank branches in Nigeria coupled with very high incidences of reported bank frauds making it imperative to ask if the number of bank branches has a relationship with the increase in bank frauds. The principal objective of this study was to find out if the increasing number of bank branches in Nigeria has a significant relationship with increasing cases of reported bank frauds. Secondary data sourced from the annual reports and accounts of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation on the yearly reported bank frauds and the number of bank branches per year for 18 years period (2000-2017) were analyzed using the simple regression analysis with the number of bank branches as the independent variable and the reported bank frauds as the dependent variable. Correlation and the ANOVA tests were also conducted.Overall, it was observed that a positive, but not significant relationship exists between the variables.