On 6 November, the Comité Français d’Organisation et de Normalisation Bancaires (CFONB) meetings took place in Monaco, their main theme being "new forms of fraud". We asked Mr. Frédéric Hervo, CFONB Vice-President and Bank of France Director of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructures, about the content of his speech at this symposium.
I addressed both the CFONB’s standardisation role and the Bank of France’s fraud prevention role.
The CFONB is the official standardisation committee for the banking profession and also an important consultation body. The meetings it organises, particularly with the Monegasque Association of Financial Activities (AMAF), are part of its duties to share information on banking standardisation work. In this respect there is much CFONB news in 2015. We are preparing the final stage of SEPA migration, that of niche products, interbank payment orders and electronic payment orders, which must be replaced with European payment methods by 1st February 2016 at the latest. In this context the CFONB has developed the technical brochures on the means of replacement of niche products.
The CFONB has also taken part in several major standardisation initiatives in relation to the legislative and regulatory changes e.g. the Relevé Annuel des Frais d’Encaissement de Carte (RAFEC) (annual statement of card receipt charges), which is set to change due to both European and domestic reforms and regarding the means of implementation of the banking mobility project, by developing message formats for interbank flows as well as for the return of information to issuers of direct debits.
As regards the main topic of this conference, "new forms of fraud", the Bank of France has the legal duty to ensure the proper functioning and security of payment systems and methods. This is a very broad supervisory area. We are working on frames of reference which cover all cashless payment methods, and on evaluation of how payment issuers take these frames of reference into account. We are also working on the gathering of data on fraud in order to monitor its development.
A debit card security watchdog was set up in 2001. This body is intended to promote information exchange and consultation between all parties concerned (consumers, merchants, issuers and public authorities) for the proper functioning of card payment systems. The goal is to monitor the implementation of security measures and to guarantee technological and objective statistics monitoring. 2014 saw a decrease in fraud rates for domestic transactions via debit cards for the first time. Card payment fraud through Internet transactions remains a key priority, however. Indeed, card payments on the Internet account for only 11% of total card payments but two thirds of total fraud. One way to prevent such fraud is to universalise strong authentication measures, for example enabling fraud to be limited through the generation of a text (SMS) code for a single payment transaction. This domestic recommendation will become mandatory in the European framework with the new Payment Services Directive which should be passed by the end of 2015. Strong authentication on all remote electronic payments is to be applied in 2017/2018 when the Directive becomes fully applicable. But it is important that all European countries prepare for this as of now."
