When you take your money to the bank or deposit it through digital platforms, your expectation is that your money and your personal and financial information will be kept safe.
In the current world where most of our personal and financial data is stored digitally, it’s easy for sensitive data to be leaked either during manual input or during internal handling.
Many financial institutions have been forced to take extra cybersecurity measures to ensure there are no data breaches either due to internal mishandling or externally through hacking.
Each year, more people are going cashless and opting to conduct most of their transactions online, meaning more financial institutions are investing heavily in their cybersecurity.
NCBA Bank is one such institution and it has proven over the years that it leads the park in Kenya when it comes to handling of customer information compared to the other banks.
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In 2024, NCBA Group MD John Gachora revealed that the financial institution had invested more than Sh644.5 million in cyber security amid rising cases of cyberattacks in the sector.
Gachora said the amount was mainly used to reinforce NCBA Bank’s firewalls to ward off cyber threats as the bank enhanced its infrastructure to combat growing threats online.
“We see this issue as a real problem across the banking industry, and because of that it is important that, as a company, we put in the necessary infrastructure to deter such vulnerabilities,” said Gachora in September 2024.
Data recently released by Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), showed a major upsurge in cyber threats, with 1.1 billion incidents detected between March and June 2024 alone.
The change marked a 16.5 per cent urge compared to the same period in 2023 with the most targeted systems including database servers, operating systems, remote access systems, network devices and web applications.
As more and more customers in Kenya adopt online and mobile banking to manage their finances from anywhere, it is more imperative for them to feel at ease on their data security.
In 2024, NCBA disbursed a total of Sh1.0 trillion in digital loans, marking a 23 per cent growth year-on-year meaning more and more customers are relying on its digital channels.
The lender’s profit after tax also expanded by 2 per cent to Sh21.9 billion, its customer deposits stood at Sh502 billion and assets also reached Sh666 billion in value in 2024.
This means that the bank can only heighten its efforts to secure the customer deposits, assets and transactions as it strategies on investing its profits and improving its services.
But NCBA is like fish in water as it has continued to invest in advanced technologies and internal cybersecurity training to give customers confidence when conducting transactions.
The bank has endeavored to stay ahead of cybercriminals when it comes to mobile banking, online banking, NCBA Till and card payments by continually enhancing its defense systems.
Through collaborations with its system and app guardians, and awareness creation, the Kenyan Tier-1 bank has set up elaborate systems of detecting and mitigating cyber threats
NCBA Bank continues to stage its pledge to customer data security by leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and partnering with leading tech firms to provide secure financial services.
As it continues to transform to match the needs of its 60-million strong customer base across Africa, NCBA has also continued to lead the pack in offering innovative solutions.
By adopting Robotics Process Automation (RPA), the financial institution has proven that it is walking the talk in significantly reducing errors and boosting efficiency in its core systems.
RPA has also seen NCBA adopt Project ZERO to reduce human intervention to realise a 70 per cent increase in the value of gained time and cut turnaround time (TAT) by 33 per cent.
The bank’s robust Patch and Vulnerability Management, Incident Response and Security Monitoring programs strategy identifies vulnerabilities and resolves incidences promptly.
Amid growing hi-tech cyber threats, NCBA uses its Security Operations Center (SOC) to monitor digital assets and respond in real time to potential threats to protect customer data.
NCBA’s stout cybersecurity measures strictly comply with local and global regulations to ensure quick recovery from cyber incidents and uninterrupted services to its customers.
The bank also partnered with SACCOs to enable them reinforce their cyber defences and better overcome major barriers to the implementation of effective strategies internally.
The move is also aimed at aiding SACCOs to tackle the high costs of acquiring and maintaining ICT infrastructure as well as the ever-changing threats to cybersecurity.
The novel solutions offered to its customers in the Sacco Banking Division are especially tailored to improve operational efficiency and reinforce the cyber defences of SACCOs.
NCBA’s top-notch cybersecurity measures assures customers of their data privacy, security of their transactions and secure product innovation leaving them to bank with fewer worries.
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