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'Mitigate fraud, or else,' CBN says

March 21, 2014

The Central Bank of Nigeria has advised the nation's retail FIs that they must implement measures to mitigate a rising tide of ATM fraud or face sanctions. Banks have until June 1 to comply with the order.

According to Codewit World News, a CBN notice circulated to Nigerian banks said:

[W]e have observed with dismay, an upward increase in the number of ATMs-related fraud in the banking system. The development does not portend good for the industry and requires urgent steps to curb the abuse.

Consequently, in addition to the existing guidelines on card-related frauds, and in order to guard against card skimming at ATM channels across the country, all deposit money banks are hereby mandated to comply with the provisions of section 3.2 'ATM operations' and 3.4 'ATM security' of the Standards and Guidelines on ATM operations in Nigeria, and also install risk mitigating devices on their ATM terminals on or before June 1, 2014. The CBN would invoke appropriate sanctions for non-compliance with this circular.