The Department of Home Affairs has announced that an anti-fraud initiative, launched together with the banking industry, prevents more than R300 million in monthly losses.
Minister Malusi Gigaba briefed the media on the partnership.
The South African banking risk and information centre says seven banks in the country have adopted this verification service to combat identity theft.
Gigaba said, “The programme started in 2009, when banks were given access to the Home Affairs national identification system.
“There is movement from 3,682 branches using 16,058 finger print scanning services. Bank transaction volumes are now at 2,5 million a month, and up 250,000 a day.”
He says the service is hugely successful.
“The verification service potentially prevents R322 million in losses per month, thus an annual potential prevention estimate could come to about R3,8 billion.”
