Fraudulent activities in the banking sector is expected to go down as some multinational companies move into the sector to help banks completely move from magnetic swipe cards to chip and pin ATM cards.
In June this year, two Bulgarians were arrested for withdrawing huge sums of money from the accounts of customers of some banks in Ghana using the Gh-link platform, operated by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS).
Some observers have blamed the frequent breach of Ghana’s ATM system to the use of magnetic swipe cards by some banks.
Speaking to Citi Business News as part of measures aimed at reducing ATM fraud, the Chief Executive Officer of Mobility Technologies, Mr. Muhammad Abid stated that the company’s introduction of the Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) personalization centers in Ghana will help reduce ATM fraud in the country.
“Today there is a mandate by the central bank of Ghana to migrate or the magnetic swipe card to chip-based and all the challenges we have from the people responsible for implementing this changes is the lack of understanding of the technology and this is where we come in,” he said.
He announced that Mobility Technologies has a track record in preventing ATM fraud across the African continent with the implementation of the technology.
“We have the experience of implementing such technologies in various of the markets in Africa so we are going to bring in the technology and this is the technology that we have today which is going to help the banks and help the central bank and the other players in the ecosystem to migrate from magnetic swipe to chip base cards,” he said.
Expressing optimism in the technology, Mr. Abid stressed that the EMV system cannot be hacked since it has been tested worldwide to prove its security.
He stated that after the implementation, ATM fraud will drastically be reduced since the system cannot be breached when it starts operations with Ghana’s banking platform.
“I can confidently tell you it is going to massively reduce the number of fraudulent transactions because it is impossible to duplicate a chip card, but it very easy and possible to duplicate magnetic swipe card,” he said.
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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana