Banking giant Lloyds TSB plans to implement a new software system designed to prevent employee fraud.

The system, provided by transactional risk management software specialist Actimize, will be deployed within the bank’s retail sector. Actimize Employee Fraud runs analytics against multiple data sources in order to identify strange or anomalous employee behaviour.

Awareness of the so-called ‘insider threat’ has heightened during the past year, as a spate of data theft incidents has served to underline the prevalence of the crime. According to a global survey, commissioned by enterprise security management firm Arcsight, 90% of security professionals consider the insider threat a top security concern.

Last month, the UK Financial Services Authority announced that it has fined BNP Paribas Private Bank £350,000 for a failure in its anti-fraud system which enabled an employee to siphon nearly £1.5 million from a client account.

In a statement, Margaret Cole, FSA Director of Enforcement, said that the authority is now taking the issue of insider fraud extremely seriously. “This is a warning to other firms that we are raising our game in this area and expect them to follow suit. We will not hesitate to take action against any firm found wanting,” she added.

Gauging the scale of the problem will remain difficult however, as the majority of organisations are reluctant to report such cases to the authorities for fear of reputational damage.