Innovating Securely in the Competitive Arena of Smart Banking

The second day of the Africa Banking Summit was as engaging as the first day with more engaging conversations around how to use technology to improve and grow the Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI).

A panel discussion moderated by the Group Head of IT Security & Infrastructure, Platcorp Group, Francis Mwangi, looked at how innovation can be done securely in this competitive arena of smart banking. The panel included Tim Theuri, the CISO at M-Pesa Africa; Cliff Ogeto, the Head of Cybersecurity at Eclectics International, and Amadi Collins, the GM – Security Architecture and IAM at Equity Bank Kenya Limited.

Speaking on the topic, Tim Theuri said that the main tools that have differentiated Safaricom’s innovation in the market are Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

“One of the key differentiator, is AI and ML. We’ve heard of this in the last one or two years but Safaricom has been using this for the past 6 or so years. Once you’ve bought airtime that is made for you or interacted with Zuri. Of course it comes with its own security risks, when it comes to securing the customers data. In terms of security, it has put us on our toes as we aim to focus on its security as we innovate. The biggest we have been using is AI and ML,” Theuri noted.

Speaking on present day digital banking, Collins Amadi noted that trust is key and it drives innovation and scalability within digital banking. He further noted that trust comes through usage and consumption.

While giving examples on what he has seen in the industry and the things that strengthen or weaken trust between a bank and a customer, Amadi went deep into highlighting the importance of ‘Secure by Design’ which is basically incorporating security in innovation rather than just as an after thought.

On his part, Cliff Ogeto talked about this from a regulatory perspective saying that regulators always play catch up to innovators.

“Regulation usually comes after technology. They play catch up. One thing they can do is collaborating with organizations that are in these industries and learn about these innovations. So I think collaboration is something that can help also make these innovations secure,” Ogeto remarked.

Tim Theuri further gave examples of how companies can incorporate security in their innovation journeys by trying out a back bounty program.

“It allows these white hat hackers to communicate about these vulnerabilities. I know a CFO will look at this as a loss because we pay them for the vulnerabilities they discover but this is a model that ensures your systems are as impenetrable as possible.