Saudi banks, represented by the Banking Media and Awareness Committee, are organizing their ninth awareness campaign under the slogan “It’s Not on Us” to raise public awareness among members of society—and bank customers in particular—about the risks of financial and banking fraud.
During a press conference held in Riyadh, the committee explained that financial fraud worldwide continues to rise and has become a burden that inflicts further losses on the global economy, citing reports issued by the Fraud Prevention Association for 2016, which state that financial fraud costs companies worldwide 5% of their annual revenue, amounting to $6.3 billion annually, with private companies accounting for 38% of that total, followed by public companies at 28%.
Talaat Hafez, Secretary-General of the Media and Banking Awareness Committee at Saudi Banks, explained that this year’s campaign focuses on four main areas: bogus investment offers, get-rich-quick schemes, high-risk investments, and fake job offers, money transfers to unknown recipients, and granting financial powers of attorney without specifying the purpose.
He noted that the campaign aims to clarify the principles and standards necessary to maintain the efficiency and integrity of financial and banking operations, as well as to highlight the most important precautions that customers must take.
Hafiz expressed his hope that the awareness campaigns launched by Saudi banks each year will help clean up financial and banking transactions in the Kingdom and reinforce efforts to curb attempts at fraud or exploitation targeting customers.
The Kingdom ranks among the countries with the lowest incidence of financial and banking fraud worldwide, despite the prevalence of fraud cases related to debt repayment and the granting of financing by unregulated entities and individuals not licensed to engage in financing activities, who publish misleading advertisements that violate regulations via social media accounts “Twitter,” which numbered 458,000 accounts during the period 2009–2017.
