Amid the repeated cyber-attacks and threats, the country’s banks are now increasing their allocation to intensify their online securities.
The allocation for security in the Information Technology (IT) sector of the country's banks has increased around 4 percent in a year due to dealing with cyber threats, said a research report of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM).
According to the research report, banks have increased investment in IT security. In 2019, 5.6 percent of the total IT budget was allocated to IT security while it was 9.5 percent in 2020.
According to the researchers, the banks are allocating more for IT security due to the increasing threat as well as awareness of cyber-attacks in banking sector.
Ahmed Jamal, chairman of BIBM executive committee and deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, said the quality of customer service needs to be enhanced through more use of information and technology in the banking sector so that customers can to do banking with more confidence.
There is no alternative to information technology in financial and banking services now, he added.
BIBM Director General Md Akhtaruzzaman said the recommendations and comments that are coming will be included in the research report.
A top executive of a private bank said expenditure for security of IT of banks has been increased because banks are now proving its clients all services online.
"Online banking services are gaining popularity among clients, so banks are making more investment to make such IT based services more secured" he said.
Earlier at the beginning of this year, Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) issued an alert for bank and financial institutions over a possible cyber-attack.
