Intercontinental Bank Bags Industry Support Award in Nigeria at Card Expo
June 22, 2009 by Bunmi Awolusi
For its sustained support and pioneering launch of Verve Chip card aimed at countering the rising wave of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) frauds, the organizers of the just-concluded CardsExpo Africa 2009 in Lagos last Thursday bestowed on Intercontinental Bank Plc, the Industry Support award.
The award was in recognition of the bank’s support to electronic banking business over the years. This includes the bank’s deployment of one the largest ATM platforms as a reflection of its commitment to be the best e-banking platform in Nigeria.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Cards Expo, the Group Executive, Cards Services, Intercontinental Bank Plc, Mr. Roland Obe observed that the penetration of cards to the mass populace for use on these numerous channels available was a herculean challenge considering the costs to the issuer and to the user in these austere times.
Security he added, was another issue that has the potential for undermining mass production and deployment hence the need to adopt new forms of card technology.
The introduction of Verve card, a chip based card, to customers, he stated “was to safeguard customers funds from fraudsters while giving them the added knowledge that they sleep peacefully with their hard earned monies in the bank is encouraging.”
Mr Obe said the best solution to the ATM fraud is a strong commitment by the card holder not to let out vital information to third parties or suspected dubious persons.
He echoed industry held opinion that stakeholders collaboration was necessary to flush out the ATM fraud and that the introduction of the Verve card is a step towards reducing the trend.
Mr. Obe confirmed that up till now the bank was yet to record a single reported case of fraudulent transaction on its Verve Card because it was extremely difficult to clone. Between March and May Intercontinental bank had deployed about 200,000 units of Verve cards to customers nationwide.
Intercontinental Bank in February blazed the trail in complying with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) directive that all banks should stop the issuance of the fraud prone magnetic stripe ATM cards and in its place issue the chip cards. The magnetic stripe card technology which is still widely in use does not guarantee security of the cards and leaves the holder at the mercy of criminals.
He affirmed that Intercontinental Bank remained the first and only bank in Nigeria to have seamlessly introduced Verve card into the financial services basket adding that the bank was ready to partner in future with other industries to revolutionize e-payments and collections.
According to Interswitch Nigeria Ltd, the Verve Card has a lot of security features that makes it very difficult for fraudsters to clone. Verve is the only Chip and Pin card that do not only have international security features, but also addresses local security challenge in Nigeria.
