FC CIO: T&T banks in line with international standards

The banks in T&T adhere to the international standards set by Visa and MasterCard, said Warren Sookdar, chief information officer, First Citizens bank. “If we do not adhere to the standard, you really could be locked out of their systems. At the end of the day, the Visa and MasterCards reputation is compromised. As far as I am aware, all of the local banks adhere to those standards. We cannot afford the reputation of risk of our customers. The banks have good standards, good security and governance policies,” he told the T&T Guardian.

Sookdar was commenting on a security breach which has put large numbers of Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards across the Caribbean at risk. Last week the Banking Association of T&T (BATT) said none of its member banks had reported cases of attempted fraud following the breach. Anya Schnoor, Scotiabank T&T Ltd’s country head, said approximately 1,000 of that bank’s cardholders might have been affected and the bank is closely monitoring the situation.

Sookdar said First Citizens has done its best to ensure its customers are well protected. “We are very proactive with credit card security to the international best practice. We have a 24/7 authorisation department which looks at trending and based on the characteristics they have built in the system by MasterCard and Visa, it can pick up a transactions that may be suspect,” he explained.

“We have a system when you are travelling that you advise the authorisation department so that you do not get a decline unnecessarily. “If you usually buy in Trinidad and suddenly we see you doing a transaction in South Africa this may raise a red flag, so the authorisation department will verify you have done the transaction,” he said.