Zimbabwe banks migrating to Euro MasterCard and Visa standards

By Staff writer | 20 Feb 2019 at 20:20hrs
Mangudya
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has given banks an ultimate to ensure that they bolster their security in order to fight against the ever-growing Cybercrime threats that were becoming more widespread in the country.

Delivering the eagerly awaited 2019 Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) this afternoon, RBZ Governor Dr John Panonetsa Mangudya said banks have up to 31 March 2019 to have hand-in their cybersecurity policies, strategies and frameworks.

Mangudya said;

The Bank is aware that cyber risk will keep changing due to the evolution of cyber threats in the country and indeed across the globe. Financial institutions and individuals are increasingly being exposed to cyber-attacks which have become more sophisticated, frequent, targeted and difficult to identify The Bank urges payment services providers and banks board of directors and senior management to;

i. Intensify their efforts and take responsibility for setting, overseeing the strategy and ensure that cyber risks are accorded due consideration;

ii. Update cyber security policies, strategies and frameworks and submit the same to the Central Bank by 31 March 2019;

iii. Ensure that Information Technology (IT) objectives include maintaining the capacity to effectively anticipate, identify and recover from cyber security attacks for overall IT resilience; and

iv. Immediately make a report whenever an institution becomes aware of cyber security incidences within its system which adversely impact on the customers or the ecosystem.

Mangudya also said market participants are required to migrate to Euro MasterCard and Visa (EMV) standards to ensure enhanced card security features to curb cyber-related activities. He disclosed that 80% of the bank cards in the country are EMV compliant and the remainder should be updated by the 31st to meet Euro, Visa and Mastercards (EMV) standards.

Further to the cyber security guidance, market participants are required to migrate to Euro MasterCard and Visa (EMV) standards to ensure enhanced card security features to curb cyber related activities. Currently, over 80% of the card infrastructure in the country is now EMV compliant. Financial institutions should therefore ensure that all cards issued in the market are EMV compliant by 31 March 2019.

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