Bankers Association charges merchants to be vigilant to reduce ATM fraud

The Ghana Bankers Association has called for extra vigilance on the part of merchants providing goods and services in order to help reduce ATM or card fraud.

The 2020 fraud report from the Central Bank revealed among other things that, ATM or Card fraud recorded a loss value of approximately GH¢ 8.19 million in 2020, as compared to an approximate loss value of GH¢1.26 million recorded in 2019, representing a year-on-year increase of over 500 percent in losses associated with ATM fraud.

John Awuah is the CEO of the Ghana Association of Bankers, and he tells Citi Business News that apart from educating customers on the safe use of their ATM cards, merchants also need to play their part to reduce ATM or card fraud.

“We are talking to our merchants, we are urging them to be vigilant and ensure that when they are processing transactions they should make sure people around them are trusted people. There could be a customer who is just nosing around trying to steal card details from other unsuspecting customers. A lack of vigilance could lead to card details being stolen and used in a manner that can lead to financial loss for customers and even the merchants.”

“All in all there are other things that can be done to reduce ATM or card fraud like training for merchants, training for card users and general education on the safety of ATM cards,” he added.

Reported value of fraud against Banks & SDIs hits GH¢ 1 billion

The reported value of fraud recorded by Banks and Specialized Deposit-Taking Institutions in Ghana in 2020 was about GH¢ 1 billion.

This represents an increase of over 750 percent when compared to the reported value of fraud recorded in 2019, which stood at about GH¢115 million.

That’s according to the Bank of Ghana’s Banks & SDI Fraud Report for the year 2020.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the fraud report, saw customers who were not used to digital/electronic methods of making financial transactions being compelled to use them.

Consequently, some sections of the banking sector were exposed to heightened levels of fraud-related risk, due to the increased patronage of electronic/digital products and services.

Source:Goldstreetbusiness.com