Fidelity Bank MD Challenges Auditors On Fraud

The chief executive officer/managing director of Fidelity Bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo has harped on the need for auditors to leverage on opportunities of technology to bring advancement and checkmate fraud in the banking sector.

He also advised Chief Audit Executives (CAE) to adopt technology innovations in tackling imminent risk in the sector.

Okonkwo made this assertion at the 42nd Quarterly Meeting of the association of Chief Audit Executives (ACAEBIN) where banks’ CAE, representatives from financial Technology (fintech) companies and representatives from the Central Bank of Nigeria gathered to discuss ‘Internal Audit and The New Digital Frontier.’

The Fidelity boss was represented by the Deputy Managing Director of the Bank, Mohammed Balarabe.

According to him “By the way the theme has been coined, it is very clear that you guys in the control community have to get prepared for the challenges that would come about because of the digital age.

So there is a need for us to really be prepared to embrace it but most importantly walk through it.”

He further explained that technology had made automation in the banking sector possible as it has enabled solutions to hitherto difficult problems, because  “What you find is that advancement in technology has enabled the automation of several processes and procedures in the banking industry.

And what that means is that some services that used to appear very complex, and difficult for the public to access have now become so simplified.

All you need to do now is just touch a button on your computer, laptop, or phone and the service is available to you.

That is a very good development, but it comes with its own challenges and I  think sessions like this should take time to look at what those challenges are, and how can we overcome them,” Okonkwo said.

Seizing the advantage of technology, Fidelity Bank, he explained now solve banking problems through digitization of its systems.

He said “In Fidelity Bank, today, 80 per cent of our transactions happen on the digital platforms.

And the aspiration is that within the next two years, we should have 90 of all our transactions outside the banking hall on the digital platforms.

And that obviously poses challenges for all of us, especially we in the community of auditors.”

He however warned of imminent risk posed by fraudsters to modern banking “What you find also is that these automations come with a lot of challenges.

Challenges in the sense that it opens up paths to fraudsters and people of bad characters to attack institutions and customers alike.

And that you would naturally lead us to say, we would clamp down on this.

“I don’t think that is the approach. I think; yes to the extent that the digital platforms don’t have manual interventions or people actually guarding the system.

Yes, it has increased the potential of business risk of running banks but we should also look at it from a perspective that we might use technology to enhance the controls that we have in our systems,” Okonkwo stated