Banking experts have called for increased collaboration among electronic payment services providers and with stakeholders to forestall incidences of electronic fraud.

Speaking at the August monthly meeting of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NEFF), the experts said there is the need for collaboration with law enforcement agencies and the judiciary.

“Collaboration is critical among all stakeholders as the various parties come together to provide the platform for electronic transactions. Issuers, Acquirers, Switchers and Processors all have to integrate to provide service to the public. A chain is as strong as its weakest link”, said Mr. Phillip Oduoza, Managing Director/Chief Executive, United Bank for Africa, UBA, Plc.

He was represented by the by Femi Olaloku, Executive Director, Operations and Information Technology.

“It is important that we learn from other environments and if possible establish affiliation with other global bodies/organizations to understand global trends and emerging threats in electronic fraud,” he said.

He said in addition to increased collaboration, compliance to standards on information security is critical. He said, “Industry standards (card schemes, third parties, acquiring devices, systems among others) are an imperative to manage technical and operational complexities and fraud risks.   Compliance to these standards must be monitored and sanctions for non-compliance must be instituted.”

He said that, “Cashless Nigeria and the drive to migrate payment transactions to electronic platform create great opportunity for the banking industry and the Nigerian economy but also come with the threat of electronic fraud.

Fraud not only translates to operational risk losses to banks it erodes the confidence of the public in electronic platforms/systems as a channel for transacting business.

As customers demand more convenience and technology responds with innovation, new threats and fraud risks emerge that must be contained. If you are secure today, it does not imply you are secure tomorrow as new risks emerge continuously.”

On his part, Mr. Osioke Ojior, Chief Risk Officer, Interswitch Nigeria Limited said that though incidences of electronic fraud have declined significantly on some electronic payment channels, it is still significant on web based channels. He said this means that there is still a lot of work to be done to forestall incidences of fraud in the country.

He said these include improved collaboration with law enforcement agencies and the judiciary. He said there also the need for banks and electronic payment service providers to increase investment in fraud management vis-à-vis people and process and also on measures to enhance cardholders’ awareness.

Ojior said there is also the need to define standards for security of information on electronic payment transactions that addresses the peculiarities of the Nigerian environment.