GTB seeks joint crusade against e-payment fraud

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) wants the fight against the e-payment fraud to be a collaborative effort all banks in Nigeria.

They believe that the fight might not be sustainable unless all the money deposit banks unite and present a common front on the issues clogging the wheel of progress of the system.

The bank speaking through its  Head, System and Control Division, Segun Fadahunsi, said the issues concerned payment platform, lack of co-operation among banks, limits on Internet banking, cash withdrawal limits, inadequate web to SMS monitoring and under-reporting of e-payment fraud cases.

Fadahunsi, who represented the bank's managing director, Segun Agbaje,  praised the efforts of  the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF), in the fight against e-payment fraud in the country.

According to him, the body 'is the convergence point for tackling the menace of e-fraud, which unfortunately has been on the rise in recent times.'

He said that e-fraud had attained interbank proportion  since the last quarter of 2011, when a particular payment platform was introduced into the Nigerian payment space as the proceeds of fraud from a customer defrauded in bank A is quickly moved to a fraudulent beneficiary's account in bank B and withdrawals made from ATM within a few minutes.

He noted that prior to the introduction of the platform in reference, the proceeds of fraud usually resided in bank A (where the fraud was done), and that made controlling such incidences a bit easier. He called on NeFF and relevant authorities to look into this matter urgently for solution.

He said, 'A situation whereby the beneficiary of e-fraud in another bank continues to operate his/her account even after such a bank has been officially notified of fraud leaves much to be desired.

'We are at a loss on whether protecting fraudsters constitutes another form of competition. NeFF and other appropriate regulatory agencies should come up with standard modalities for the handling of accounts of fraudulent beneficiaries.'

However, NeFF painted a slightly different picture especially as it concerns fraud via ATMs.

The body , at its first yearly general meeting in Lagos, said the incidence of e-payment fraud through the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has declined by 99 per cent.

Chairman of NeFF and Deputy Director, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Emmanuel Obaigbena, adding that the fight was ongoing, given the evidence that cybercrime has really gained ground globally.