Nigerian tech firm eyes Kenya's fraud hit banking sector
Charles Ifedi (second left), Verve International CEO and Richard Coate (third left), Verve Card country manager and Bernard Mathewman CEO Interswitch EA CEO. PHOTO | LILIAN OCHIENG
What you need to know:
- Interswitch entered Kenya two years ago by acquiring majority shares in electronic payment firm Paynet Group. Through background research, it has established the need to provide security for banking systems.
- A 2015 Cyber Security report by IT services consulting firm Serianu in partnership with PKF Consulting and USIU Africa states that the banking sector is among the hardest hit by system fraud with an estimated annual loss of Sh4 billion.
Interswitch East Africa is eyeing the local banking sector with new fraud control systems intended to tighten security loopholes in cards and financial institutions.
The Nigeria headquartered firm serves over 40 per cent of East Africa’s financial institutions who have outsourced debit and credit card issuance. It will leverage on its clout in the market to sell its fraud control systems Card Control and Scorebridge.
Interswitch entered Kenya two years ago by acquiring majority shares in electronic payment firm Paynet Group. Through background research, it has established the need to provide security for banking systems.
“Because of their intelligent nature, these new advanced solutions will result to even lesser incidences of card present and card not present fraud even in cases where customer’s card identity and PIN are exposed or stolen,” said Interswitch CEO Bernard Matthewman.
The move comes at a time when there is a rise in online fraud in the financial sector. This last year prompted banking sector players to issue warnings and implement additional security features to mitigate against the losses.
The cyber security report indicated that the lenders lost Sh4 billion in one year through Internet-related incidents.
HARDEST HIT
A 2015 Cyber Security report by IT services consulting firm Serianu in partnership with PKF Consulting and USIU Africa states that the banking sector is among the hardest hit by system fraud with an estimated annual loss of Sh4 billion.
In 2014, it was reported that fraudsters exploited gaps in online banking to steal at least Sh987 million ($9.8 million) from commercial banks in the first half of the year.
Interswitch says that its card based fraud prevention systems adds a new layer of protection for consumers and financial institutions, over and above the new EMV (Chip and PIN) cards introduced in Kenya over the last two years.
Scorebridge, enables financial institutions to analyse in real time, transactions to determine whether they should be authorised or declined, reducing time spent by banks investigating fraud.
Mr Matthewman, said customers and banks using the systems will achieve measurable fraud savings and will be able to put a figure on how much they save from potentially fraudulent transactions.
