The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it has adopted a number of measure aimed at protecting banks from Internet frauds and other cybercrimes .
The Director, Banking Supervision, CBN, Mrs. Olatokunbo Martins, stated this in a keynote address delivered at the 1st Annual Conference on Audit and Regulatory Examination of Banking Technologies in Lagos on Tuesday.
She said, “Where is the next crisis going to be? Our concern is that we don’t want the next crisis to come from what we are hearing about cyber espionage around the world because those figures that we are hearing are quite alarming. In banks you employ so many technology-driven products and the banks embrace new financial, operational and compliance risks as you adopt these new technologies.
“As you are aware, very soon, we won’t just be requiring you to make capital charge for your credit, you will also be required to make capital credit for your operational risks.
“IT risk is a major operational risk. Currently, you will say that the major risk comes from credit, but some will also tell you that a significant part of credit risk is operational. If you say that operational risk is a failure of people, processes and system, even the credit risk, a major part of it is interwoven with credit risk.”
Martins added that each technology adopted by a bank presented unique risks that raised safety and soundness concern.
“By 2014, hopefully, the banking industry should be Basel 11 compliant. This will bring about improved capital buffers and to protect the banks and make them more resilient,”she said.