Nationwide Building Society has rolled out anti-skimming technology on its ATMs to protect its customers from card fraud.
Working with NCR Corporation, the building society fitted the Skimming Protection Solution (SPS) on 424 of its cash machines across the UK to prevent criminals from acquiring bank details by tampering with cash machines.
Criminals are able to clone cards by installing skimming hardware and software devices to card inputs on ATMs, allowing account details to be stolen without the knowledge of the user. According to statistics cited by NCR, fraud losses for skimmed and cloned accounts in the UK reached £42.1 million last year, and fraud attacks are growing at a rate of 13 percent year on year across Europe.
The SPS solution installed by Nationwide incorporates software to enable a jamming hardware module which blocks skimming devices from reading card details.
The system is able to notify the building society of an attack in real time, continually reporting to the Natwest's IT systems on the health of the cash machine. The software is also able to be updated to respond to new threats developed by criminals.
"We're proud to have driven innovation forward while working with NCR. For example, we recently worked with them on their new Skimming Protection Solution to further safeguard users' cards against skimming," said Jay Bourne, senior manager of ATM Services at Nationwide Building Society.
"This innovation-driven approach allows us to continue to protect our customers' money and to achieve the levels of trust they expect, as well as reduce risk associated with fraudulent activities."
"Maintaining and improving consumer confidence in the services they provide is a fundamental building block for leading building societies and retail banks as they seek to improve the customer experience and increase market share," added Rachel Nash, director of Financial Sector at NCR U.K.
"Nationwide's early adoption and investment in NCR Skimming Protection Solution will help it achieve these goals, driving loyalty by protecting its customers from the latest fraud and skimming techniques."