Fraud in Nigerian banks fell by N3.96 billion in 2015 — CBN

Various electronic payment systems deployed by the Central Bank of Nigeria have helped curb incidences of fraud in banking transactions in 2015 as mobile money transaction volume grew to N4 billion during the year, the CBN said.

The director of Banking and Payments System Department of the CBN, Dipo Fatokun, said the actual loss as a result of fraud in bank transactions dropped from N6.2 billion recorded in 2014 to about N2.3 billion in 2015.

Mr. Fatokun said while cases of attempted fraud fell from N7.8 billion to N4.4 billion in 2015, the volume of such cases jumped astronomically from 1,461 to 10,743 during the same year.

“The significant drop in the incidences of fraud in the banking system was as a result of the successful deployment of various mobile payment systems and vigorously enforced by the CBN in 2015,” Mr. Fatokun said.

Some of the various payment systems introduced by the CBN included the bank customers’ Biometric Verification Numbers (BVN); fraud prevention strategies; Treasury Single Account (TSA); agency banking and electronic-dividend payment project with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

He explained that the various systems have helped significantly in protecting bank customers by addressing issues of identity theft and fraud exposure, thus strengthening the Nigerian banking system.

“An analysis of the reduction in fraud incidence in 2015 made fraud rate in Nigeria less than that of Europe as a whole, and indeed Portugal, which boasts of the least fraud rate in Europe,” the director added.

Further review of the sector performance during the year showed an equally unprecedented upsurge in the volume and value of transactions across all payment channels in the country.

Details showed that value increased by about 11.57percent from N44 billion to N49 billion, while the transaction volume rose by about 43.36 per cent from 113,421,933 to 162,598,740.

Equally, the value of mobile money operation transactions for January 2016 stood at over N4 billion.

Mr. Fatokun said the average value of transactions carried out by the Mobile Money Operators (MMOs) was over N3 billion per month (inter-scheme), with about 100,000 agents across the country at the moment.

The introduction of mobile money in Nigeria, he explained, had recorded huge impacts in the economy despite the challenges associated with it as a result of technology.

Mr. Fatokun said the MMO initiatives have boosted financial inclusion by bringing the unbanked segment of the society to the formal sector of the economy.

These, he said, would enable underserved people in the banking system to access financial services that would “enhance their economic opportunities, boost productivity in various sectors and contribute to economic development.”

“The beauty of this service, going by the general perception of users, is that it is easy to use, it is secure, service providers are easily accessible, and it saves cost and time,” the director added.

SOURCE:PREMIUMTIMES