Message from the Executive Director
Another year is almost over. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank all those who have worked so hard to provide information, time and resources to help us to meet our targets and objectives. Some of the highlights are as follows:
We held National Member meetings in Stockholm in February (our 38th Meeting co-hosted by Bankomat AB and the Pan-Nordic Card Association), in The Hague in June (our 39th Meeting hosted by Europol) and in Bucharest in October (our 40th Meeting hosted by the Romanian Banking Association – ARB). In January The Polish Bank Association (ZBP) joined EAST as the new National Member for Poland, taking over from Bank Zachodni WBK.
The EAST Expert Group on ATM Fraud (EGAF), chaired by Otto de Jong, held three meetings in January, May and September, all hosted by ING in Amsterdam. EGAF members assisted Europol to translate the co-produced document ‘Guidance & recommendations regarding logical attacks on ATMs’ into German, Italian and Spanish.
The EAST Expert Group on ATM Physical Attacks (EGAP), chaired by Graham Mott, held two meetings in March and September, both hosted by the LINK Scheme in London. In February EGAP published a document entitled ‘ATM Physical Security Guidelines’ and in October a document with lists of the Manufacturers of ATM Protective devices.
The EAST Payments Task Force (EPTF), chaired by Rui Carvalho, continues to come together. EAST has expanded its remit beyond ATMs to include all terminal types and the EAST focus is increasingly moving to Card Not Present (CNP) fraud issues which continue to rise. A series of teleconferences have been held and the first face-to-face meeting is planned for 2017.
In March EAST supported Europol and represented the private sector at the Second Strategic Meeting on Payment Card Fraud (PCF) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I participated in this two day meeting which was co-organised with ASEANAPOL, with the cooperation of INTERPOL and the support of the Romanian National Police and the Royal Malaysian Police.
In May EAST joined forces with the Latin American Association of Operators Electronic Funds Transfer and Information Services (ATEFI) in order to further strengthen cross border cooperation in combating all types of payment crime including payment card fraud, hi-tech crime and ATM cyber and physical attacks.
In June Úna Dillon presented at the 2nd Europol Training Course on Payment Card Fraud Forensics and Investigations, which was held at the National Spanish Police Academy, Ávila, Spain, and at the 37th member meeting of the European Association of Payment Service Providers for Merchants (EPSM), which was held in Dublin, Ireland.
In August Rui Carvalho presented at the SAS Fraud & Security Intelligence Customer Connect event held in the USA at the SAS World Headquarters in Cary, North Carolina. .
In December I presented on behalf of the private sector at the Third Strategic Meeting on Payment Card Fraud (PCF) organised by Europol in Bangkok, Thailand. The event was co-organised with ASEANAPOL and INTERPOL with the support of the Romanian National Police and the Royal Thai Police, and was hosted by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society.
EAST continues to keep abreast of the latest fraud trends and crime information, publishing our European ATM Crime Reports and European Fraud Updates. Our thanks go out to all the people and organisations that have shared information for the above, and for EAST ATM Fraud Alerts (49 sent out this year to date), and EAST ATM Physical Attack Alerts (3 sent out this year to date).
EAST Associate Membership continues to grow both numerically and geographically. We currently have 168 Associate Member organisations from 51 countries and territories. This membership category is open for worldwide application to all Banks, Law Enforcement (free membership available), and other approved ATM Stakeholder organisations
Lastly, registration is now open for our third Financial Crime and Security (FCS) Forum, EAST FCS 2017, which will be held on 8th/9th June 2017 in The Hague. This event has an exciting new format which will include breakout sessions hosted by both EGAF and EGAP. As I write early-bird registration discounts are still available. It would be wonderful to meet you there.
On behalf of EAST, I would like to wish all readers a wonderful festive break and a very happy and fulfilling New Year.
Kind regards
Lachlan
