Equity Group names top fraud busters just a month after losing millions of shillings to fraudsters, signaling a move by Kenya's most profitable lender to strengthen its anti-fraud team.
The bank, which recently raided the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in search of talent to strengthen its internal controls, is taking it a step further by appointing no fewer than eight key people to strengthen fraud detection and prevention. a team.
The appointments include two senior group fraud managers and a senior director of security and technical governance, all of whom will work with the Fraud Risk Director in monitoring and responding to relevant risks.
Equity Group CEO James Mwangi said the aim was to match the group's risk control with the growing size of the lender because “any little thing that happens hurts the reputation” of the brand.
“We have created (one of the strongest) brands on Earth. Our internal control environment must match that. It has been embarrassing to see our customers subjected to social engineering and lose their money,” Mwangi said during the investor press conference last week.
In the middle of last month, the lender was robbed of Sh179.68 million by 551 account holders who fraudulently received and transacted the money in seven days.
The bank's risk department said it detected an increase in transactions from the bank's incoming general ledger from MasterCard. The money was fraudulently paid from MasterCard to 551 accounts and then transferred to 11 banks and several M-Pesa accounts.
Equity wants to appoint a group senior fraud manager for payments and another senior fraud manager responsible for insurance and investment. It is also looking for a Senior Director of Security, Governance and Technical Assurance, a Security Technology Roadmap Lead and a Fraud Risk Analyst.
Other risk management-related positions include enterprise awareness, reporting, and analytics analyst, product security architect for business, fintech, and digital initiatives, vendor management administrator, and enterprise resource planning support analyst.
The planned hiring will add to two recent appointments in which Equity appointed a Group Chief Financial Officer and Head of Internal Audit.
Equity has appointed Moses Nyabanda from PwC Rwanda, where he was Managing Partner, to become Group CFO – the first time Equity has created such a position.
The bank also appointed Beth Githinji from the Central Bank of Kuwait, where she worked as portfolio advisor and director of internal audit and risk management. She joined Equity in February of this year as lead internal auditor.
He said, “We realized that reaching the top is one thing and staying at the top is another thing… We do not believe that our risk control environment is at this level and this is what we are working to strengthen.” Mr. Mwangi.
Equity will take applications for the new positions until May 27. The Group Senior Fraud Manager will, among other responsibilities, review fraud risk assessments for both existing and new payment products and services while ensuring anti-fraud controls are assessed across the group.
“Through close collaboration with the Sub-Heads of Risk and Fraud Management, the incumbent is tasked with ensuring the continuous identification, assessment and evaluation of payment fraud risks, followed by their efficient mitigation,” the job description states.
The Senior Insurance and Investment Fraud Manager will be required to have in-depth knowledge of insurance and investment fraud risks and techniques for detecting and countering these risks. The Senior Credit Fraud Manager will ensure anti-fraud controls during lending.
Equity's Senior Director of Security, Governance and Technical Assurance will, among other roles, “analyze known and emerging threats” to identify risks to the group's operations.
The Senior Director of Security will work with the Security Technology Roadmap Lead, who will be tasked with assessing the group's cybersecurity capabilities and emerging technologies and delivering a three-year plan to address vulnerabilities.
Equity has also opened the search for a fraud risk analyst to use advanced analytics and data mining techniques to “identify patterns and anomalies that indicate fraudulent activity across various business and operating units.”