KCB Group’s fraud problem is no longer something that can be treated as isolated misconduct by a few rogue employees after the lender disclosed that it sacked 60 staff last year over direct involvement in schemes to defraud the bank and its customers.

The figure points to a serious internal control problem inside one of Kenya’s biggest banks, especially because KCB had already fired 34 employees in 2024 over similar fraud related issues, meaning nearly 100 staff were removed in two years over conduct tied to fraud.

According to the lender’s latest sustainability report, KCB recorded 201 fraud incidents last year and blocked attempted fraud worth Sh141.1 million, while Kenya accounted for 188 of the attempts and 50 of the 60 employees dismissed.

KCB says it wrote off Sh760,000 due to fraud and forgeries last year, down from Sh4.5 million in 2024, and insists that advanced security measures such as biometric authentication, document verification, selfie matching, enhanced digital onboarding and real time monitoring helped detect and stop fraud attempts.

However, the number of employees sacked shows that the fraud threat is not only coming from outside criminals targeting digital banking systems, but also from within the institution itself, where staff access, customer trust and internal knowledge can be abused to expose both the bank and its clients.

The bank says KCB Kenya blocked fraud worth Sh100.8 million while KCB Rwanda blocked Sh40.3 million, but the disclosure that dozens of employees were directly involved in fraud schemes raises uncomfortable questions about supervision, staff integrity, internal audit systems and how long such schemes had been running before detection.

The wider banking sector is also facing growing pressure from digital fraud, with lenders investing heavily in artificial intelligence, fraud monitoring tools, insurance cover and provisions as mobile, card and internet banking fraud continue to expose customers and institutions to financial crime risks.

For KCB, the latest disclosures confirm that fraud remains a serious governance and operational risk, and the public will now expect more than general assurances about technology upgrades when the bank’s own report shows that staff involvement has been significant enough to force mass dismissals.