GCC Banks Can Lead Fight Against Nearly USD 4 Trillion in Global Fraud

Reduced Business Complexity Key for Deploying Real-Time Analytics to Detect, Analyze, and Prevent Fraud

DOHA, Qatar – 15November 2015 – GCC banks can lead the global fight against fraud, which totals nearly USD 4 billion in revenue losses per year, one of the world’s leading technologists announced today at a major conference.

The global banking and financial services sector has one of the greatest number of fraud cases, with total fraud cases causing organizations to lose 5 percent of their annual revenues, or USD 3.7 trillion in total per year, with 22 percent losing at least USD 1 million, according to a report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

In the Digital Economy, as GCC banksinnovate, extended IT systems and consumer-centric applications are causing an alarming number of potential places for fraud and misconduct to hide, argued Irfan Khan, Chief Technology Officer for Global Customer Operations, SAP, who presented on “Complexity Equals Risk.”

“GCC banks are largely unburdened by complex, legacy IT systems, so they are well-positioned to be among the world’s leaders in fighting fraud,” said Irfan Khan.“Their simple, holistic, and agile IT solutions can improve governance, risk, and compliance. Real-time analytics will be essential for detecting, analysing, and preventing fraud, and catching fraud perpetrators before the losses mount, and for driving competitiveness.”

In the Middle East, one in five organizations (21 percent) report economic crimes, but there is a widespread lack of effective tools, as only 5 percent of fraud was detected by internal audit, according to a recent report by PwC.

Anticipating the growing need, SAP has seen strong GCC demand for its Fraud Management analytics solution, which runs on the SAP HANA platform. The solution aims to help organizations reduce financial loss by preventing, deterring, and detecting fraud through pattern identification, simulations and fewer false positives.

In the Middle East, SAP solutions manage USD 1.6 trillion in assets, including the 10 safest banks in the Middle East and Africa. SAP counts 14,100 banking customers in 150 countries, managing USD 70 trillion in assets.

Organized by Qatar Central Bank, the Information Security Conference for the Financial Sector is being held from 15-16 November in Doha, Qatar.