Financial services executives have reported a big spike in fraud, telling an annual global survey that average company losses in the the sector during the past three years totalled $15.2m, up 22 per cent from 2008’s tally.

The sector, which was at the epicentre of the world economic crisis, was by far the hardest hit of the 10 sectors surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit for Kroll, an international security company.