Preventing fraud in popular financial institutions is the job of directors: CNBV

Jiutepec, Mor. The culture of fraud prevention in credit institutions that serve the base of the population pyramid – people with lower incomes – must come from the highest ranks, that is, boards of directors, shareholders and high-level managers, in order to protect the resources and information of their client base, stated the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV).

If credit institutions do not have adequate protocols to prevent fraud against users and their senior managers do not take action, cybercriminals will have an easier time attacking them, said Esther Ramírez Bernabé, vice president of supervision of development banking and popular finance.

In a presentation on the supervisory priorities of that authority, held on the second day of activities of the 9th Convention of the Mexican Association of Popular Financial Companies (AMS), he expressed that it is of utmost importance that these institutions communicate constantly to know “where the goals come from.”

“We must know our customers and stop unusual behavior to prevent fraud. We must know our users, their behavior, their transaction amounts, and establish systems and controls, monitoring and alerting,” said Ramírez Bernabé.

He pointed out that if a popular credit institution has anti-fraud responses, prevents and detects “and they still score a goal, they have to see and identify, investigate why the controls failed and why they did not stop to modify the fraud prevention strategy.”

The official pointed out that once frauds against users have been detected, the financial entities must have dialogue so that all participants are prepared and thus the clients have greater confidence.

And regarding the regulations issued by the authorities, he said, these are the minimum rules with which these popular sector credit and savings entities must operate, but it is better to be above them to protect clients.

“Businessmen and directors must be above the standard (of the rules), because they have clients that they must serve and take care of their assets… We have to return to the old reliable, which never fails, when someone has doubts and thinks that the regulator is wrong, this maxim must be applied, it is about complying with the rules and taking care of the users,” added Ramírez Bernabé.