Banks to establish common data base to tackle fraud – CBN

Bankers' Committee is to establish a data base on customers' identity, which will be accessible by all banks, so as to check the incidence of fraud through multiple identities.

Deputy Governor, Operations, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Tunde Lemo disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists at the opening of a two day workshop on Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards and the Cashless Nigeria.The workshop was organised by the apex bank in partnership with Phillip Consulting.

He said the data base, is an information portal that will contain identity of all customers of banks including their fingerprints, and all the banks will have access to the portal. He said the portal is to check a situation whereby a customer defrauds a bank, and goes to another bank, using another set of identity.

He said, "Yes the Bankers Committee has taken a decision on that, there is a sub-committee and they are working very hard on biometric based unique identification portal that will be available to all the banks. So that we can have unique account data base that will be very ubiquitous and ensure that we have unique identification for all the customers across the entire industry.  It will take effect as soon as possible. They have started meeting."

He said that though the Bankers Committee had earlier intended to partner with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in this regard, it was observed that there is compelling need for the banking industry to have something unique to it.

He said, "The NIMC idea is very good. It is something we all have to migrate into, in the future, but until that is done, we will have to have something that the industry can use and that is what we are doing.  Today, the need is very compelling for the banking industry to have a unique data base that will be available to all.

"Then when NIMC is ready, all of that may be migrated to NIMC portal or we have an idea by which there is complete integration. But we have not really jettisoned any partnership that is possible with NIMC. But the banking industry as an industry will like to hit the ground running by having something that is unique to them, that can be available to all the banks even as soon as possible."

He said that the need for measures to combat fraud in the industry have been made more compelling by the cashless policy due to concerns about security of electronic payment transaction.

He said, "One major concern noted by the CBN during the stakeholders' engagement sessions on cash-less Lagos was the fraud risk or the security of e-payments channels. I am delighted to note that compliance with PCIDSS helps to mitigate risks associated with prevalent use of bank cards and payment channels.

"One of the objectives of the workshop is to sensitize practitioners and stakeholders on the relevance of PCIDSS, with a view to helping them to meet the CBN's deadline for its compliance.

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