Hope Payment Service Bank has begun a legal process to recover ₦6.5 billion stolen from its banking platform that is self-acclaimed to be a “premier digital-first bank in Nigeria”.
On about July 15, 2024, there was unauthorized access to the Plantiff’s banking platform, following enormous sums of money transferred fraudulently from the Plantiff’s banking platform to certain beneficiaries’ accounts.
An excerpt from a motion the company filed at a Lagos high court
The stolen funds were transferred to hundreds of accounts in commercial banks and neobanks. According to a source, some banks have begun to recover some funds but didn’t disclose the figures.
On July 18, Hope PSB reported the theft to the police, however, it did not disclose the fraud mechanism. Eventually, the cyberattack story came to light. Meanwhile, Hope PSB shut down its banking infrastructure as a response or solution.
It is better to have a downtime than to lose money. This is the first time we have suffered an attack in five years, as we have a robust risk and compliance framework. Customer deposits are safe, and there was no risk transference.
Hope PSB spokesperson
However, as digital payment develops greatly in Nigeria, fraudsters are now highly sophisticated, beating even the most layered and expensive securities at a go.
According to data from the NIBSS fraud industry report, financial institutions lost ₦3.007 billion to fraud across 20,638 incidents in the first quarter of 2024.