Commercial banks and regulator join efforts to shine a spotlight on fraud |19 November 2019
The Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) in collaboration with the Seychelles Bankers
Association (SBA) are joining global efforts to promote anti-fraud awareness and education through their first participation in the International Fraud Awareness Week, being held from November 17 to 23, 2019.
The CBS and the banking community will be engaging in various activities at an institutional level as well as collectively during the week, under the theme ‘Fraud: Know it, Detect it, Prevent it!’. This will include fraud awareness activities for their staff, stakeholders and customers, as well as those targeting the general public which comprise radio and television interviews, newspaper articles and awareness videos.
The main event for the week is an Anti-Fraud Expo, which will be held on Saturday November 23, 2019, at Camion Hall, from 9am to 12pm. This will see the participation of CBS, the banks, the Financial Intelligence Unit and Seychelles Police.
It will be an opportunity for members of the public to be educated on different types of frauds and scams, particularly those associated with the financial services sector.
The public will also be made aware of the various initiatives taken by the institutions to help detect fraud, as well as tips of what each individual can do to protect themselves from becoming a fraud victim.
Fraud takes many forms and could affect people from all walks of life. According to a survey conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, organisations worldwide lose an estimated 5 percent of their annual revenues to fraud.
The CBS governor, Caroline Abel and SBA chairman Phillip Moustache, have both
highlighted the importance of raising awareness about fraud.
“Fraud can affect various areas of our lives and the banking sector has not been spared from attempts by criminals to defraud people, such as past incidents of ATMs being targeted by card skimming fraud. Generally, many people have also been targeted and robbed through online scams. It is therefore important to acknowledge that fraud is a serious issue and show that we are against such practices. It is also important to be mindful that as more technologies are
introduced, criminals are also evolving, finding innovative ways to defraud potential victims.
Cyber risk has emerged as a key risk to financial stability, hence the need for the different types of incidents such as data breaches and fraud to be given due consideration. It is for this reason that the CBS symposium to be held later this week, will be bringing stakeholders together to discuss how we can better mitigate cybersecurity risks in this digital era,” said Governor Abel.
“Coming together to join this global fight against fraud is a good start. Taking a proactive approach and reaching out to our staff, stakeholders and general public is important, as education is key to ensuring that people have the knowledge to make informed and good decisions. Nevertheless, while banks have a responsibility to abide by the necessary guidelines to offer secured products and services to their clients, it cannot be overemphasised that protecting ourselves from becoming fraud victims is also an individual responsibility and one of the most important ways to do that is by protecting our personal information,” said Mr Moustache.
International Fraud Awareness Week is an initiative of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) which started in 2000.
The local institutions will this year be joining hundreds of organisations worldwide for the annual fraud week. It is to be noted that this has been initiated by the Inter-Bank Fraud Committee, which is a subcommittee of the SBA mandated to oversee and monitor fraud risk.
Organisations can sign up to be listed on the ACFE website as a way of supporting the fraud awareness initiative, which CBS has already done.
Communique from Central Bank of Seychelles and Seychelles Bankers Association