CBN, Police working to set up ePayment crime unit to track cybercriminals
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed fresh plans to collaborate with the Nigeria Police in setting up a new unit called ePayment and crime unit.
The unit will be structured to trail and track online fraud activities and make arrests even before the criminals will be able to get into the systems.
This was the submissions of the Director, Banking and Payment System, CBN, Dipo Fatokun, at the Cyber Security Conference held in Lagos recently.
He said the CBN is building a watch list of events in the sector as it relates to security breaches, and argued that the Bank Verification Number (BVN) would significantly help in the targeted reduction of the incidence of fraud and the likes in the industry.
Fatokun represented by the Deputy Director, Banking and Payment System, CBN, Musa Itopa-Jimoh, said “But I think, it is just a matter of time, we shall soon resolve all those matters. Already, there will be a watch list as regards fraud activities. The CBN and the Nigeria Police Force will set up an ePayment and crime unit (ECU) to further fight that battle”.
Fatokun hinted further that in furtherance of the CBN’s efforts at combating fraud in the industry, it has partnered with NIBSS to procure and install an industry anti-fraud solution.
The solution, he said will serve as an interface between the new anti cyber crime unit and the banks to decode and track financial crimes before their maturity.
CBN explained that the solution is an industry fraud monitoring tool that ensures behavioural monitoring, patterns and hold/block controls on transaction suspected to be fraudulent.
In the spirit of the emerging ECU, the apex bank advised banks and other financial institutions to establish and run dedicated fraud desks in their respective organizations.
This will be energized and complimented by the establishment of an industry Security Operations Centre and a Risk Information Centre, to consolidate “our strength at eradicating e-payments frauds to the barest minimum and enhancing trust in our payments system”.
“The bank had issued various policies and circulars on industry related fraud detection and prevention.”
