Financial institutions and their regulators are worried about the major cyber attacks they are facing, often times daily.
Cyber risk is one of the major threats flagged in the 2024 Financial Stability Report launched on Thursday by the Central Bank of Barbados and the Financial Services Commission.
Representatives from those two agencies, along with spokespersons for commercial banks, credit unions and insurance companies, say they have their guard up against cyber attacks.
Major financial losses
They warn that these attacks could result in major financial losses and reputational damage to institutions and the general public.
“One of the biggest threats out there right now is cyber [attacks]. As we transition more to digital and online banking forms of payments, cybersecurity risk is going to increase,” Shimon McIntosh, managing director, RBC Royal Bank, said at the Courtney Blackman Grande Salle, Tom Adams Financial Centre, The City, during a roundtable to launch the latest report.
“When I read the Financial Stability Report, they said that one out of five cybersecurity incidents targeted the financial services sector, so making sure that you have that cybersecurity resilience is key. Banks invest a lot in cybersecurity.”
McIntosh, who is also president of the Barbados Bankers Association, said the threat from cyber attacks was real since “if you just look at home here in Barbados, phishing schemes and smishing schemes are rife”.
“You are getting messages from people every day trying to con you into taking certain actions.
“I think where the banks can play a role there is around financial literacy, making sure that people are aware of how to prevent against phishing attacks, and that is something that is getting the attention of the Bankers Association,” he said, noting that the banking sector had launched a fraud prevention strategy to sensitise the public on these issues.
Tracia Pounder, general manager, Barbados Cooperative & Credit Union League, said cyber attacks “pose one of the biggest risks affecting the sector now”.
Assessments
“The credit unions’ regulators, FSC, they have started to do thematic assessments on the area and credit unions are aware of the risks that are posed to them,” she said.
“And through our association
at the League, we have supported with having technical assistance on-boarded to look into any areas of remediation required as a result of the assessments by the regulator.”
Paul Inniss, executive vice-president and general manager of Sagicor Life Inc., called cyber risks a threat to which everyone should pay attention.
“It’s not just from the institutional perspective; I think it’s from the personal perspective. You can lose your reputation and your brand in a second . . . and that could be systemic in terms of the impact on society and the economy.”
Central Bank Deputy Governor Alwyn Jordan said regulators were working closely with financial institutions to negate the threat.
“You have these schemes that are very public, but you also have the other phishing attempts that come on a daily basis,” he said.
“Part and parcel of what we’re also trying to do is . . . looking at it from a financial literacy perspective. If something looks too good to be true, you know that it generally is.”
FSC chief executive officer Warrick Ward said there was also a need for the public to report suspicious schemes, whether they were online or otherwise, to regulators.
“You could send it to us, either FSC or the Central Bank . . . so we would do our investigation, and then obviously come up with some sort of warning or shutdown,” he said. (SC)
