EFFECT OF FORENSIC ACCOUNTING SERVICES ON FINANCIAL CRIMES DETECTION OF LISTED DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

This study examines the effect of forensic accounting services on financial crimes detection of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The increasing spate of financial crimes perpetrated through the banking sector under the watchful eyes of internal and external auditors, banking inspectors, supervisors and regulatory agencies and the fact that the banks are employing all necessary measures including the use of forensic accounting services to curtail this crime motivated this study in order to look into the resultant effect of forensic accounting services on financial crimes detection of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. This study proxies forensic accounting services by litigation support, expert consultancy and fraud investigation which were tested against fraud. The study used 14 quoted deposit money banks for the period of year 2013 to 2023. The data for the study were collected using secondary source. The hypotheses of the study were tested using regression analysis. The result of the study shows that fraud investigation and expert consultancy have negative insignificant effect on financial crime while litigation support has positive and significant effect on fraud. While expert consultancy reduces the level of frauds in banks, the level of reduction in the fraud level is of no significance. In line with this, it is recommended that banks employ more of expert consultancy. The quantum of the services will lead to a more drastic fall in fraud level with consequent significant effect. It is also recommended for a less dependence on litigation support as it has no negative effect of fraud level. Thus, attention should be more focused on expert consultancy and increased fraud investigation.