The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has announced plans to launch what is expected to be a guideline for fighting cyber fraud in the country’s financial sector.
The move follows a growing threat of the cyber fraud menace to the financial sector as witnessed in the recent spate of mobile money fraud.
Disclosing the plans - Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison pointed out that: “More recently, cyber fraud is gaining attention and becoming a key threat to financial institutions whose systems to end users are being exploitedâ€.
He however noted that: “as a regulator, the BoG is reviewing a new set of guidelines to address the cybersecurity issues in the industry to mitigate and reduce the impact of cyber fraudâ€.
The proposed anti-cyber fraud guideline is expected to complement the recently launched Ghana Government technology-based projects such as the biometric national identification, the digital national address system, among others aimed at addressing some inherent operational risks, improve efficiency and boost the public’s confidence in digital transactions.
The BoG governor reiterated that as part of its broader strategy for creating an enabling regulatory environment for convenient, efficient and safe retail payment and funds transfer mechanisms, the Bank of Ghana had issued the Guidelines for E-Money Issuers (EMIs) and the Agent Guidelines in June 2015.
Adding that the latest move was an additional step in that direction.