Bank
Fidelity Bank affirms commitment to data protection, strong corporate governance
Fidelity Bank affirms commitment to data protection, strong corporate governance
Global News Reports That The Leading financial institution in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc, has assured its customers of unwavering commitment to upholding the highest level of ethical standards in all dealings with customer data.
The assurance comes amid allegations by the Nigerian Data Protection Agency (NDPA) against the bank relating to data breach.
While reiterating its commitment to strong corporate governance, Fidelity Bank, in a statement signed by its Divisional Head, Brand & Communications, Dr Meksley Nwagboh, maintained that it has conducted its services with highest ethical standards by ensuring full compliance with extant laws on data protection.
Giving a breakdown of its dealings with the NDPC since it received a letter of the alleged data breach, the bank stated that “on April 30th, 2023, we received a notice of investigation from the Nigerian Data Protection Agency (NDPA), now the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC). The investigation was in respect of a complaint from [name has been withheld to protect the identity of the complainant] who claimed that [name withheld] details were used to open an account in the bank without [name withheld] consent.
“Based on this notice, we conducted an internal investigation into the circumstances around the claim and discovered as follows:
“An account opening request was received online in the name of [name withheld], and an email was sent to the email address attached to the request informing them about this.
“In compliance with our Data Protection policy, accounts created online without full documentation are not allowed to be operational and are closed after 30 days if the outstanding documents are not provided to authenticate the identity of the person seeking to open the account.
“In compliance with our data protection laws, the account was not allowed to be operational as the passport photograph and BVN were not provided.
“The account was immediately placed on “Post No Debit” status as the applicant was expected to complete the account opening process by providing the outstanding documents for verification within 30 days. This was not done, and the account was eventually closed.
“On May 2nd, 2023, we responded to the NDPC that the bank did not violate any law because there was no data breach and that the account opening process was not completed. On our part, we carried out due diligence by immediately blocking the account and subsequently closing the account when we did not receive the outstanding documents.
“At no point in the process was the account ever operational.
“On July 7th, 2023, we were invited for a Pre-Action meeting with NDPC. During the meeting, we restated our position as earlier communicated to them in our letter dated May 2nd.
“However, despite our explanation and evidence provided to support our claim, the agency informed us that they had reached a conclusion to impose a penalty on the bank.
“On 5th December of 2023, we got a letter from NDPC demanding we pay a ‘remedial fee’ of N250 million within 21 days.
“We immediately commenced another round of engagements with the Commission as we were convinced. We had not breached any extant law or regulation.
“While discussions were still ongoing with the NDPC, we received another letter on the 20th of August demanding that we now pay N555.8m naira.
“As a responsible financial organization with a history of strong corporate governance standards, we remain committed to the due process of the law, and we wish to assure all our customers of our unwavering commitment to upholding the highest level of ethical standards in all our dealings with customer data.
“Our commitment to strong corporate governance has earned us local and international recognition, including the prestigious CG+ award. This is the highest rank under the Corporate Governance Rating System (CGRS) of the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), which evaluates listed companies against established best practices and standards.
“As a bank, we remain in discussions with the NDPC over an amicable resolution to this matter.”
BREAKING! Opay Begins Charging Of N50 Electronic Transaction Fee
Global News Reports That OPay is set to apply a transfer fee of N50 for transactions exceeding N10,000.
OPay has introduced a new fee for electronic transfers into both personal and business accounts, in accordance with the regulations set forth by the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Beginning September 9, 2024, there will be a one-time charge of N50 for transfers of N10,000 or more.
On Saturday, OPay communicated to its valued customers:
“Dear valued customers, please be informed that starting September 9, 2024, a one-time fee of N50 will be applied for electronic transfer of N10,000 and above paid into your personal or business account in compliance with the Federal Inland Revenue Service regulations.”
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Nigerian govt fines Fidelity Bank N555.8 million over data breaches – OfLficial
He said that the commission commenced an investigation into Fidelity Bank in April 2023 and, upon conclusion, found that it defaulted.
Global News Reports The Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) says the federal government has fined Fidelity Bank Plc. N555.8 million for data breaches.
The National Commissioner of NDPC, Vincent Olatunji, said this at the Nigeria Data Protection (NDP) Act General Application and Implementation Directive (GAID) validation workshop in Abuja.
Mr Olatunji recalled that President Bola Tinubu signed the NDP Act into law on 12 June 2023, thereby empowering the commission to enforce compliance of data protection on organisations by way of fines and other means.
He said that the commission commenced an investigation into Fidelity Bank in April 2023 and, upon conclusion, found that it defaulted.
“The penalty is huge if you don’t comply; penalties can range from N10 million to even up to two per cent of the organisation’s annual gross income for the previous year.
“Most of the breaches we have treated, we look at the level of the breach, the impact, the number of data subjects affected and the level of cooperation that is involved.
“Since we started, the only time we issued a major penalty was yesterday on Fidelity Bank; a fine of N555,800,000 after we observed some breaches.
“We have been working with them since April 2023 on the investigation and, by the time we finalised, we decided to issue a full penalty on them, which is about 0.1 per cent of the gross earnings for 2023.”
Mr Olatunji also explained that the commission was engaging with stakeholders across the board and collating their input, which would form the final guide document.
He recalled that a similar workshop was held in Lagos on 19 June for about 70 per cent of data protection organisations in the private sector.
“We want to ensure everyone is involved in what we are doing and, by the time the document is out, we will all see that we have been able to make our own input; it is just an extension of the law.
“We will look at the relevance of the inputs and use them to develop a standard document that can be of global standard.”
He said the commission was deploying a Public Private Partnership model to ensure compliance with data protection.
“We have licensed about 194 professionals on data protection.
“The licensed data protection professionals go round organisations and take them through compliance in terms of crafting their privacy policy.
“They help in creating awareness within the organisations, letting them know their obligations under the law and carrying out data protection impact assessments.
“They train the staff, register them with us and submit their annual report to the NDPC; with this, we will know the level of compliance.”
The commissioner noted that the successful implementation of the NDP Act required collaborative efforts among all relevant stakeholders, organisations, businesses and data protection professionals.
He, therefore, called for constant dialogue and communication with the Commission in implementing the NDP Act.
“Collaborative efforts will foster a data ecosystem that respects privacy and protects personal data subjects,” Mr Olatunji said.
(NAN)
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