Talaat Hafez, Secretary General of the Banking Information and Awareness Committee of Saudi Banks, confirmed that the number of complaints in Saudi banks decreased by 50% compared to 2011-2012, pointing out that the fortifications and strict controls followed by Saudi banks against financial fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing put the Saudi banking sector among the ranks of advanced banking sectors in the world, especially in its ability to combat money laundering and terrorism financing operations, including financial fraud in its various forms, shapes and patterns. Hafez emphasized during his interview with “Today” that there is a rapid development of high-tech fraud operations and methods, but on the other hand, Saudi banks are working to raise the level of awareness among customers and apply the highest standards of protection and confidentiality for private data.
How do you view the phenomenon of financial fraud at the global level and has it become a threat to Saudi banks? <The phenomenon of financial and banking fraud is increasing at the global level, and this phenomenon has recorded increased record rates compared to previous years, where - for example - the number of electronic hacking attempts globally, according to one of the reports issued in this regard, exceeded the 5 billion attempts in the first quarter of last year, which warns of more concerns due to the spread of such a phenomenon that has become a danger and a real threat to all electronic financial transactions, and the phenomenon of financial and banking fraud has also witnessed record rates, but - thank God - the Kingdom remained largely unaffected <The Saudi financial sector in general, and the banking sector in particular, is an important part of this world, which has become more than a single financial and commercial block, and what constitutes a threat to parts of this block in terms of electronic transactions, represents a threat to most of it. From this point of view, Saudi banks have been keen to follow the most important developments in electronic fraud operations and ways to prevent them, which now concern the entire world, by taking all preventive measures to minimize their consequences and repercussions in various areas of banking work.
What are the measures taken by Saudi banks?
What measures have Saudi banks taken to counter this phenomenon? <Saudi banks follow precautionary measures and invest large sums of money every year to develop and modernize their information systems to make electronic banking an open and secure field at the same time, and there is continuous and continuous cooperation with the competent security authorities in Saudi Arabia to address such attempts if they target local bank customers. Among other measures taken by Saudi banks in this regard is the launch of continuous awareness campaigns aimed at raising the level of awareness of community members in general and bank customers in particular, of the proper principles of using bank and credit cards and electronic banking channels, to reduce the possibilities of exposure to fraud attempts, and such annual campaigns, which are managed and implemented by the “Banking Information and Awareness Committee” emanating from the Committee of Directors of Banks to send a clear and important message to the community of the need to limit banking operations within their legitimate channels, and adhere to the directives issued by the bank The awareness campaigns carried out by Saudi banks on an annual basis do not necessarily mean that local banks are witnessing breaches of their banking systems, or that the Kingdom and its financial and banking sector are experiencing a state of phenomenon associated with financial fraud operations. Rather, Saudi banks aim through these awareness campaigns to purify the environment of financial and banking transactions in the Kingdom from any attempt at fraud and fraud, as well as providing open and safe channels that allow customers to carry out their banking transactions smoothly and comfortably.
The Kingdom is located within the scope of the Banking Information and Awareness Committee, which is affiliated with the Committee of Directors of Banks.
The Kingdom falls within the high-risk group for cybercrime risks according to the international CasperSpy classification.
Have Saudi banks been exposed to any cybercrime attacks?
Have Saudi banks been exposed to any hacks of their banking systems? In order to provide the necessary protection for their various information systems, Saudi banks invest huge amounts of money annually to develop and modernize their information systems, and are committed to applying the highest international standards and best practices to protect their information systems, including bank cards or what is known in the banking terminology as payment cards that they grant to their customers, such as ATM cards and credit cards of various types and forms.
Saudi banks have not witnessed any breaches of their banking systems and are in the high risk group for cybercrime risks. In order to provide a high level of protection and confidentiality for payment card data and minimize the risk of fraud, Saudi banks have adopted a global standard for the payment card industry known as the PCI DSS-Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which was approved by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, which is responsible for setting security standards for payment cards globally.
Saudi banks“ compliance with the PCI DSS-Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS-PIDSS) has been approved by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). <The compliance of Saudi banks with this standard and other information security standards represents a major and important step in raising the level of security of customers” payment card data and operations, and enhancing information security in general in the Saudi banking sector. Compliance with the requirements of these standards is an ongoing process that helps to monitor information threats, improve the means of dealing with them, and address the risks of security breaches of payment card data, and the process of applying the requirements of the standards has reflected a number of benefits to the sector, the most important of which are: Making organizations more prepared to comply with other global security standards, strengthening the foundations of security strategies, and giving a good opportunity to identify ways to improve the efficiency of the IT infrastructure.
<In Saudi banks, we would like to reassure our customers that the financial and banking frauds that were recorded in the past were very limited and are not expected to spread in light of the strict regulations and controls applied by Saudi banks to provide the necessary protection against hacking or financial fraud in its various forms. In particular, banks have provided specialized departments and units to combat financial frauds, in addition to that banks issue many warnings to their customers throughout the year to avoid certain behaviors and behaviors that may make them - God forbid - victims of financial frauds. God forbid, victims of financial fraud, the most important and prominent of which include, but are not limited to, responding to phone calls or emails requesting to update bank data and personal information, given that the only way to update bank data and personal information is through the bank's branch network only. Banks have also warned their customers not to respond or even interact with text or electronic messages that claim to win a prize in kind or cash, and to delete them immediately. These fortifications and strict controls against financial fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing followed by Saudi banks have placed the Saudi banking sector among the ranks of advanced banking sectors globally, especially in the sector's ability to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, including financial fraud in its various forms, shapes and patterns.
You recently launched a campaign to combat money laundering and terrorism financing, including financial fraud.
You recently launched the sixth campaign to raise awareness of financial and banking fraud, what is new in this phase compared to previous phases?
Saudi banks are keen every year to launch such awareness campaigns to coincide with the beginning of summer and the summer vacation season, given that the summer vacation season usually witnesses a higher demand by members of society to travel and tourism at home and abroad compared to other seasons of the year, which is accompanied by a significant increase in the use of bank cards in general and credit cards in particular, in addition to the use of various electronic channels to complete various banking operations, including the use of Internet banking, which called for the need to intensify such campaigns to inform people of the use <The sixth “Don't Spread It” campaign includes various applications ranging from newspaper ads, road ads, and radio, with a great emphasis on utilizing social networking sites, supported by awareness seminars, workshops, lectures, and participation in a number of specialized events, and the sixth “Don't Spread It” campaign The sixth campaign will cover all cities and regions of the Kingdom. One of the most prominent features of this campaign is its ability to combine the guidance and educational approaches. This is what distinguishes this year's campaign as it is presented in a more interesting and attractive framework that includes many simulations of fraud stories, most of which were drawn from similar incidents experienced by some bank customers.
Have the awareness campaigns implemented by Saudi banks contributed to reducing the risk of customers« exposure to financial and banking fraud? Are there any statistics on the rate of decline in banking fraud in the Kingdom in recent years? <We believe that the intensive awareness campaigns on financial fraud adopted by Saudi banks through the Banking Information and Awareness Committee have greatly contributed to preventing the hacking of customer information and personal data, despite the significant increase in the volume of financial and banking transactions through electronic banking channels, and I may give an example in this context, the number of complaints of bank customers of various types recorded last year amounted to 14,707 complaints. The number of complaints was lower than the average number of complaints recorded by banks in the past two years (2011 and 2012), with a decrease of 50%, which confirms the high level of banking awareness among all bank customers on the one hand, and the efficiency of complaint handling centers in banks on the other hand, especially in their ability to deal with complaints and their speed in deciding and processing them.
The previous awareness campaigns - praise be to God - have achieved good successes, especially in generating a remarkable interaction by all members of society, especially bank customers, and this is confirmed by the good decrease in the rates of reports and complaints in general received by banks from customers related to notifying them of their exposure to fraud attempts in particular.
What do you attribute to the high level of banking awareness among all bank customers on the one hand, and the efficiency of the complaint handling centers in banks, especially their ability to deal with complaints and their speed in resolving and processing them?
To what do you attribute the reason for the exposure of customers to financial and banking frauds? What advice would you like to give to Saudi bank customers, especially with the annual summer vacation?
Most of the financial frauds that bank customers are exposed to are due to their disclosure of their financial and banking information to others, which exposes them to abuse by criminals and weak-minded people. The negligence of customers in trading and disclosing their banking data, credit card information and PIN numbers is still the main entry point for them to fall into the trap of fraud, especially in light of the rapid development of high-tech fraudulent operations and methods, so we called on our customers in banks to Immediately report any unknown transaction on their accounts or credit cards without their knowledge, or when they lose their bank or credit cards, as well as when they suspect that they have been exposed to any fraud attempt; so that the bank can take immediate measures to ensure that the card is suspended or the account is frozen to minimize the damage.
<We call on customers of Saudi banks to exercise caution and caution in the use of credit cards while traveling and to restrict their use to known and safe shops and stores, and to be careful not to disclose or reveal card numbers or disclose secret numbers to avoid any attempt to defraud them. We also call on the public traveling abroad to keep their mobile phones registered with banks in operational mode throughout the travel period, in order to maintain communication with the bank branch and ensure receiving immediate notifications of financial and banking transactions that take place on their accounts.
