The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has directed Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), merchant banks, Other Financial Institutions (OFIs), Payment Service Banks (PSB), and other payment service institutions, to send more fraud prevention messages to their customers.
In its ‘Exposure Draft on Digital Financial Services Awareness Guidelines,’ the apex bank also directed the institutions under its regulation to monitor fraud reports.
The reports, CBN said would enable them to identify emerging fraud issues and sensitise their customers on how they can protect their assets.
CBN maintained that financial institutions and payment service providers need to do more in order to enhance transparency and proper disclosure of Digital Financial Services (DFS) going forward.
BizWatch Nigeria understands that these CBN’s directive follows the growing threats to cybersecurity in recent times.
Why CBN wants banks to beef up their security measures
According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), financial institutions in the country recorded a loss of N3.5 billion to fraud-related incidences.
The losses were recorded between July and September 2020, a development that represents an increase of 534% when compared to the corresponding period of 2019, when the banks lost N552 million to cybercrimes.
In the report, it was disclosed there-in that the highest number of fraudulent cases (35.5% of the total) were committed on the web channel, transactions that are done using a web browser.
The NIBSS, however, explained that the trend from the beginning of 2020 has been that the web and mobile channels are viable mediums for exponential fraudulent gains.
