Banks Set up Fund to Fight e-fraud

• Banks Set up Fund to Fight e-fraud

The Deposit Money Banks in the country have set up a multimillion-naira fund to fight scammers as the banking sector continues to record rising cases of electronic fraud.

Part of the funds will be deployed in massive anti-fraud campaigns to expose the tricks of e-fraudsters beginning January 2018.

The Chairman, Committee of Electronic Banking Industry Heads, the umbrella body for the heads of e-banking in all the commercial banks in the country, Mr. Dele Adeyinka, made the disclosure in an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Tuesday.

Adeyinka said, “Six months ago, in mid 2017, we realised that we needed to set aside some amount of money (running into hundreds of millions of naira) to create awareness about electronic fraud. We decided that an ‘X’ amount of all the transactions going through the NIBSS platform for the purpose of fighting fraud.

“What this means is that a fraction of the value of all the banking transactions going through the NIBSS platform is being set aside for this. In January 2018, we will begin massive campaign across all channels, social media, radio, television and print media to educate customers on the activities of fraudters. We are going all the way and we won’t stop once it starts because it is going to be on a sustainable manner.”

According to the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Industry Fraud Report, the banking industry recorded 6, 212 fraud cases during the second quarter of this year.

Within the period, the actual loss count was 3,211 while the actual loss value was put at N501m.

The report put the attempted fraud value at N791m.

“The Q2 2017 has a fraud volume of 6, 212 which depicts a 17 per cent increase when compared to Q1 2017 and Q2 2016 respectively,” the report read in part.

Adeyinka said the banking industry had realised the need to fight e-fraud in the banking sector by engaging in massive campaign to educate bank customers on e-payment fraud.

According to the CeBIH chairman, who is also the head of e-banking in Wema Bank Plc, the move to tackle the activities of fraudsters with the fund coincides with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s plan to resume cashless Nigeria policy next year.

“The fun is also in line with the regulator’s plan to resume cashless Nigeria policy next year,” Adeyinka said.

He said the heads of e-banking under the auspices of CeBIH was working with the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc and the Nigerian Electronic Fraud Forum to ensure that fraud cases were reduced to the minimum.

On the need to create a Customer Protection Fund to assist victims of electronic fraud to find better life, Adeyinka said issue like the Charge Back Process and Liability Shift were being looked into in order to ensure that victims of e-fraud get their refund as and when due.

In line with the principle of the Charge Back Process and Liability Shift, customers who are found to have compromised their personal banking details may not get any refund,

Liability shift means any party found to have compromised to faulty in a fraud case will bear the liability of the fraud, whether the bank, switch company or customer.