Citing the growing threat of fraud targeting global payments systems, the world’s central bankers are calling on the financial industry to work together to implement more effective defences.
The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), which is the global standard setter for payments systems and is comprised of the world’s major central banks, released a proposed strategy on Tuesday designed to improve the security of wholesale payments.
The strategy, which aims to bolster the industry’s capacity to prevent, detect and respond to attempted fraud, is designed to help both operators and participants of payment systems and industry messaging networks (such as banks, financial market infrastructures, and other financial institutions), as well as their regulators.
“Fraud in the wholesale payment ecosystem is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and recent examples have shown that weaknesses in security at one endpoint in the ecosystem can be exploited to commit payments fraud,” the CPMI says in a news release. “While wholesale payments fraud can cause material risks to individual financial institutions, it may also have a broader systemic impact on a payment system, its ecosystem and the broader economy.”
The report also sets out a plan to promote, support and monitor progress in pursuing the strategy in various jurisdictions. The CPMI stresses that the successful adoption of the strategy will depend on the industry, and various other private and public sector stakeholders, developing and carrying out action plans in their respective jurisdictions.
“Sophisticated fraud incidents in recent years have highlighted the importance of strengthening the security of wholesale payments to ensure lasting trust in the global financial system,” states Benoît Cœuré, CPMI chairman. “The success of this plan depends on clear ownership and active engagement by all stakeholders, public and private sector alike.”
Central banks that belong to the CPMI, which includes the Bank of Canada, have committed to implementing the strategy. Both the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and the European Central Bank (ECB) have welcomed the release of the global strategy, and reaffirmed their commitments to work to adopt the strategy in their jurisdictions.
“Maintaining confidence in the integrity of wholesale payments is essential for financial stability. Governors of the major central banks today committed to play their part. I encourage everyone involved in making or receiving wholesale payments to take action in line with this new strategy so that we can collectively meet the security challenge,” states Mark Carney, speaking in his role as chair of the BIS Global Economy Meeting (GEM).