Swiss anti-fraud firm sets up in Nairobi

Switzerland-based anti-fraud software company NetGuardians has opened offices in Nairobi to serve the African market.

It is also looking to woo more banks to take up its real-time processing technology.

Making the announcement last week, the firm’s regional director, John Busunkwi, said coming to Nairobi would enable the company better serve its clients in Kenya, Swaziland, Ghana and Ethiopia

In Kenya, it is securing the systems for Kenya Commercial Bank, NIC, National Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa and Kenya Women Finance Trust.

Speaking during the official launch of NetGuardian’s Upper Hill offices, the deputy to the Swiss Ambassador to Kenya, Mirko Giulietti, said most economic fraud involves banks, which means winning the war on corruption requires secure banking systems.

Through the NG|Screener platform, NetGuardians Africa is promising tailor-made software solutions for critical controls against fraud.

The system has the ability to subject huge volumes of data to continuous auditing and monitoring to give real-time correlations.

According to the company’s head of research and development, Jerome Kehrli, the emergence of new channels of service, such as mobile and e-banking, exposes banks to the increased task of unearthing correlations in transactions.

“Large volumes of data mean that banks have to employ systems that can assemble, interpret and detect meaningful correlations in data from different IT systems that are not connected and do not normally interact,” he said.

The NG|Screener allows clients to gather data on a specific customer over time and establish patterns to reflect normal behaviour.

It is also able to assemble data, such as which time of the month payments are typically made into an account, regular sources of payments, and typical geographical ATM withdrawals.

From this, any deviations can be flagged for follow up.

palushula@standardmedia.co.ke