According to the "Bimonthly Financial Stability Newsletter", referring to December 2023, from the National Bank of Angola (BNA), to which Lusa had access this Friday, the central bank's interventions to the SFA have resulted in a decrease in turnover undue payment of bank accounts.
The BNA states that after the significant increase that occurred in 2021 – the year in which customers of financial institutions were more exposed to the risks of remote banking (internet and 'mobile banking'), due to measures to contain the covid-19 pandemic –, in the last two years it has been seen that the trend in the volume of complaints on the subject "is clearly decreasing".
The SFA regulatory entity argues that the decreasing trend in the volume of complaints is the result of the intervention of several actors in the system, with emphasis on the BNA which, in addition to financial education campaigns, identified non-compliance in the actions of some banking institutions.
The non-conformities, he adds, resided in the charging of account maintenance commissions "without their clients having contracted the dedicated manager service", resulting, to date, in the refund of around 330 million kwanzas to their clients.
"Additionally, the BNA, through the publication of new regulations, has sought to mitigate the risk of fraud inherent to the use of cards, reinforcing existing mechanisms for preventing and combating fraud", the document reads.
The central bank also highlights the cybersecurity component in this bimonthly informative note, considering this to be an increasingly relevant topic in the digital era, which brings with it mitigating measures and practices that aim to guarantee the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and computer systems.
This body also recalls the creation, on July 24, 2023, of the Cybersecurity Technical Group, aimed at developing strategic policies and ensuring the implementation of actions to mitigate the risk associated with information technologies and cybersecurity in the financial sector.
