Fidelity Bank has denied allegations of data breach and disputed the fine imposed by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC).
Meksley Nwagboh, divisional head of brand and
communications, Fidelity Bank, in a statement on Wednesday, said the bank
“conducted itself to the highest ethical standards by ensuring full compliance
with extant laws on data protection”.
On Wednesday, NDPC said it imposed N555.8 million fine on
Fidelity Bank for allegedly violating data privacy laws.
According to Vincent Olatunji, the national commissioner of NDPC, the bank’s “arrogance ultimately led us to impose the full penalty”.
Reacting to the fine, the bank said the alleged data breach
was investigated, and it was discovered that “an account opening request was
received online, but the account was not operational due to incomplete
documentation”.
The bank added that it “carried out due diligence by
immediately blocking the account and subsequently closing it when outstanding
documents were not provided”.
“On April 30th, 2023, we received a notice of investigation
from the Nigerian Data Protection Agency (NDPA), now the Nigerian Data
Protection Commission (NDPC),” the bank said.
“The investigation
was in respect of a complaint from [name has been withheld to protect the
identity of the complainant] who claimed that [name withheld] details were used
to open an account in the bank without [name withheld] consent.”
‘ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY
PUT ON POST NO DEBIT’
Fidelity Bank said that based on the notice received, it
conducted an internal investigation into the circumstances around the claim.
The bank said it discovered that “an account opening request
was received online in the name of [name withheld], and an email was sent to
the email address attached to the request informing them about this,”.
“In compliance with
our Data Protection policy, accounts created online without full documentation
are not allowed to be operational and are closed after 30 days if the
outstanding documents are not provided to authenticate the identity of the
person seeking to open the account,” the bank added.
“In compliance with our data protection laws, the account
was not allowed to be operational as the passport photograph and BVN were not
provided.
“The account was immediately placed on ‘Post No Debit’
status as the applicant was expected to complete the account opening process by
providing the outstanding documents for verification within 30 days.
“This was not done, and the account was eventually closed.
“On May 2nd, 2023, we
responded to the NDPC that the bank did not violate any law because there was
no data breach and that the account opening process was not completed.
“On our part, we carried out due diligence by immediately
blocking the account and subsequently closing the account when we did not
receive the outstanding documents.
“At no point in the
process was the account ever operational.
“On July 7th, 2023, we were invited for a Pre-Action meeting
with NDPC. During the meeting, we restated our position as earlier communicated
to them in our letter dated May 2nd.
“However, despite our
explanation and evidence provided to support our claim, the agency informed us
that they had concluded to impose a penalty on the bank.
“On 5th December of 2023, we got a letter from NDPC
demanding we pay a ‘remedial fee’ of N250 million within 21 days.
“We immediately commenced another round of engagements with
the Commission as we were convinced we had not breached any extant law or
regulation.”
Fidelity Bank, however, said while they were still engaging
with the NDPC, the bank received another letter on August 20, demanding that we
now pay N555.8 million naira.
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