Two Way Text Messaging Helps Stop Fraud in its Tracks

  Banking & Payment Technologies Conference; Muson Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, May 5, 2009 – As banks around the world continue to benefit from interactive text alerts to reduce fraud, reduce call center costs, and ultimately increase revenue, Infotechnology Solutions has chosen Clickatell to offer interactive text alerts to banking customers in Nigeria – one of the fastest growing African economies. Banks can offer customers real time SMS alerts with every transaction, giving customers immediate knowledge of account movement on their cards. Using Infotechnology’s new solution, named MoneyGuard, customers have the ability to immediately respond to alerts on transactions considered fraudulent.   It takes an average of two weeks after a “stop” request is made before a card is blocked – and it only takes a few hours to empty an account.

With MoneyGuard powered by Clickatell SMS, it takes only minutes to effectively block a card. This solution arms cardholders with the ability to respond interactively and in real-time. Moneyguard was co-developed by Transec Pty Ltd from Australia, F12 from Hungary and InfoTechnology from Nigeria, and has proven success in countries like Hungary where card fraud has been reduced to 0.22%, one of the lowest in the world.   “Banking customers automatically receive text alerts on transactions and can determine immediately if the transaction was authorized by the account holder. If it is considered fraudulent, customers can immediately respond by sending an SMS to stop the payment. Imagine the vast reduction in fraud by combining the freedom of mobile phones and the immediacy of text messaging,” commented Abiodun Adesina, CEO of Tripplea Group, Inc; Infotechnology’s holding company. “Having an established track record among the strongest global financial companies, Clickatell came highly recommended by financial and mobile experts from around the world. With the ability to send more than 15 million messages per month, our banking customers are pleased with the speed and quality of this innovative real-time solution during the pilot recently concluded by several banks in the country.”   Mobile banking is fast becoming a greater contributor to the economy as mobile payments drive additional subscribers to mobile providers. Pyramid Research identifies Nigeria as the largest and fastest growing market on the African continent and has over 61 million of the 4 billion global GSM lines. In 2008, Nigeria’s mobile market experienced a CAGR of over 5.7% ranking them as one of the top 10 mobile countries in the world.    “Mobility is driving economic, financial and social change throughout the world, especially in emerging markets like Africa,” said Pieter de Villiers, Clickatell CEO. “With continued shifts in the global economic system, people want even more direct involvement in and control over their finances. We look forward to working with Infotechnology’s banking customers and further participate in the tremendous growth as leading banks continue to deploy text banking.”   Clickatell is attending the Banking and Technologies West Africa Conference this week at Muson Centre, Lagos, Nigeria.