NeFF pledges sustained fight against e-fraud in 2016

Record of attempts, actual losses decline
The Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) said it will sustain its fight against electronic fraud (e-fraud) in the country in 2016, by increasing collaborations and knowledge sharing among members.

Besides, the implementations of useful insights gained from study tours and knowledge sharing from other countries’ anti-fraud groups and planned robust awareness in the coming year would enhance the protective efforts of NeFF.

The Chairman of the forum and Director of Banking and Payment System, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), ‘Dipo Fatokun, said that after NeFF’s visit to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre, it was determined to replicate such centre in Nigeria, which will further help in combating electronic fraud and build confidence in Nigeria’s payment landscape.

But the special guest at the event and Deputy Governor, Operations, CBN, Alhaji Suleiman Barau, said the advent of e-payment necessitated the work of NeFF to ensure security of transactions and guaranteed customer confidence.

He congratulated the forum for transformational initiatives and achievements within four years of existence, adding that NeFF will continue to receive full support of the CBN.

He noted that the efforts of the forum has contributed to the declining indices of electronic fraud in the country, which testifies to how proactive NeFF has been responding to contemporary issues in the payment system security.

“These parties, as well as all the other players in the financial sector, have been making concerted efforts in ensuring that the financial sector is moving in line with global trends as e-payment develops. This is with the view to ensuring efficiency in the system as well as customer satisfaction,” he said.

Citing the figures from the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System, he said that there has been a 45.98 per cent reduction in attempted fraud, while there is 63.07 reduction on actual loses from 2014 figures.

“As we know that payment system is a huge part of our lives, there is need to always be ahead of parties whose interest lies in subverting the system to perpetrate fraud. This reduction showed that fraud was better curbed and more effective measures were taken to combat fraudsters in 2015,” he said.

According to him, these achievements could not have been possible, but for certain steps taken by NeFF, which include the signing of Memorandum of Understanding among members that has facilitated industry collaboration.

Fatokun said the forum’s deliberations also led to the release of three industry-defining circulars by CBN- two-factor authentication for internal banking processes; regulation of card-present fraud in non-EMV environment; and the creation of fraud desk for effective e-fraud control.