Paynet Group General Manager Karimi Ithau says the group has also invested in ensuring to meet the security standards in data centres to safeguard against fraud/FILE
Paynet Group General Manager Karimi Ithau says the group has also invested in ensuring to meet the security standards in data centres to safeguard against fraud.
“We have invested heavily in these technologies and now banks can outsource from us and do their work and forget about the investments in projects for certification for the payment card industry data security standard,” she said.
The upgrading comes in line with the Kenya Bankers Association and Central Bank of Kenya requirement for financial institutions to migrate to the chip card system by March 2014 to reduce ATM fraud.
A report by the Banking Fraud Investigations Department estimates that cash lost by financial institutions to fraud between April 2012 and April 2013 hit the Sh1.4 billion mark.
Central Bank of Kenya data shows the local card payments industry boasted a total of 10 million cards in circulation as at January 2013 and continued to grow moving billions of dollars worth of transactions each month.
Ithau also revealed that the group has signed a multi-million sponsorship deal with AITEC Africa to go towards facilitating a stream on card security at its upcoming banking conference on to the two day conference to open on 11 September, 2013 at a Nairobi Hotel.
“The deal will enable the conference organizer to invite experts on EMV Chip technology, secure online payments and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards to help banks know the right technology to use as they migrate to the EMV Chip card system,” she said.
The forum will also be co-sponsored by De La Rue Security Printers, which has together with Paynet Group and other partners in a campaign dubbed the “The Great Migration to EMV Chip” been training bankers on a variety of topics around the new secure card payments technology.
Kenya will be among the first markets in Africa to adopt these payment chip cards which contain an embedded microprocessor, a type of small computer that provides strong security features such as encryption and other capabilities not possible with traditional magnetic strip cards.
