The Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), has said the banking industry lost N12.30 billion to various frauds between 2014 and 2017.
NIBSS Managing Director, Mr Adebisi Shonubi, disclosed this at the third Annual Banking Security Summit, with the theme: “Digital Channels & Open Banking Security,” organised by MAXUT Consulting, in partnership with OneSpan, a global data security company, in Lagos, yesterday.
Shonubi said the figure was lost in 41,461 fraud cases between 2014 and 2017.
He specifically noted that the 2014 fraud volume stood at 1, 461, 10, 743 (2015), 19, 531 in 2016 and 25, 043 in 2017.
On “industry fraud overview with focus on mobile and payments related frauds,” Shonubi said the industry lost N6.22 billion in 2014, on attempted fraud value of N7.76 billion
Shonubi, who was represented by the Head of Industry Security Services, Mr. Olufemi Fadairo, said the sum of N2.26 billion was lost in 2015 on attempted fraud value of N4.37 billion in 2015.
According to him, the industry lost the sum of N2.19 billion in 2016 on attempted fraud value of N4.37 billion.
Shonubi said gender fraud analysis during the period showed males accounted for 73 per cent, while females accounted for 23 per cent.
He said more fraud cases were reported in 2017, with an increase of 28 per cent compared with 2016 but with less financial loss.
On fraud channel, Shonubi said the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) accounted for the highest fraud in 2017, with an actual loss of N497.64 million, with a fraud volume of 9,823.
According to him, mobile trailed with N347.65 million loss on 5,055 fraud volume, while across-the-counter transactions accounted for N259. 02 million loss in 314 fraud volume.
“While fraud trend is generally on the decline, mobile fraud trend alone is on the increase.”
Shonubi said mobile fraud would overtake ATM fraud by 2020; with the rate of increasing fraud in the channel.
He listed the top three mobile threats in Nigeria to include phone theft, SIM swaps and kidnappings.
Shonubi, however, called on Nigerians to shield themselves by ensuring phone lock, SIM lock, swap/recycle checks.
Also, Chief Executive Officer and MAXUT Consulting President, Mr. Mike Odusami, said the summit was geared toward making the financial system safer for people to have trust in the system.
“Our solution as a technology company is really about fraud prevention and making sure that this is the person the bank authorises because most of the transactions are not physical, they are done through electronic channels.
“And also in the background, we are monitoring everything that is going on in the system, that is fraud monitoring and we have helped a lot of banks and financial institutions to do that,” he said.
He said the Nigerian banking system is advanced and not lagging behind in terms of digital banking.
“We are advanced; we are not lagging behind but because a lot of transactions are still done through the USSD channel, this is the normal feature channel and anybody can use it.
“Lots of frauds are done in that channel either through SIM swap, stolen phones and kidnapping. So, we are working with the banks to develop a solution to curb that,” Odusami said.
He also said the country is still behind in open banking security and that it is relatively new with more players connecting to the banking system.
Odusami said the company is committed to make the banking system safer for people to have confidence in the system by preventing frauds. – The Sun.0
