Access Bank Harps on Collaboration to Tackle e-Fraud

Herbert Wigwe

Nume Ekeghe

Access Bank Plc has appealed to commercial banks in the country to continue to strengthen collaboration and information sharing in order to curb banking sector related frauds.

The Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, said this Thursday at the Access Bank Anti-Fraud stakeholders’ workshop, where most banks representatives gathered to

deliberate on ‘identity theft and social engineering.’

Wigwe, who was represented by the Executive Director for Information Technology and Operations at Access Bank, Mr. Ade Bajomo, said the bank was passionate about curbing e-Fraud.

He said: “The objective of this series is about sharing information and deepening knowledge about identity fraud and social engineering.

“Fraud is actually one of the fastest growing sectors in the crime industry and E-fraud in particular. Everything we are doing now is becoming more digital and as we go more digital, we have to raise more awareness because we are only as strong as our collective awareness.

“So if something has happened to my neighbour, I am more aware of it I can take the right precautions do things that would prevent me from being exposed to the same crime.

“Within Access Bank, we take security very seriously both for ourselves and our customers and also in the wider ecosystem and we believe our responsibility goes beyond just protecting Access Bank.

“It goes to the entire industry which is why we hold this event to keep awareness in the industry.

“I can only urge all the banks to participate in this watch list in participating to make sure the whole system is as secure as possible.”

Also, the Director, Banking and Payments at the Central Bank, Mr. Dipo Fatokun, urged banks to comply by flagging fraudulent accounts to avoid future sanctions.

Fatokun, who was represented by the Head, Payments, of the CBN, Olubukola Akinwunmi while speaking to the participants said: “Collaboration is key and if we have all agreed that if a fraudulent account has been identified, the BVN should be watch listed and every one of us should flag such accounts. Let us keep to it so that we can manage our exposures.

“Because we have collaborated this far with banks, we believe that we can still talk to ourselves. Now we have cautioned banks, the next wave would then be sanctions.

“We already have the list of banks and those that need to be sanctioned and if we don’t see any changes, there would be sanctions.”