Dive Brief:
- The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a committee of central banks, is reportedly considering expansive rules to protect banks from cyberattacks, according to a Reuters report citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
- BIS reportedly set up a task force and is taking inventory of methods member banks use to prevent cyberattacks so that it might propose a global standard of protection. The effort is in part designed to set standards for inter-bank transfers.
- The New York Fed and the National Bank of Belgium, which oversees SWIFT, are both involved, according to the report.
Dive Insight:
Financial institutions around the globe are stepping up efforts to protect themselves from cyberattacks following the Bangladesh heist in February, wherein cybercriminals used the SWIFT banking network to steal nearly $81 billion from an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
SWIFT has struggled to get its member banks to comply with new security protocols implemented following the heist because it is a nonprofit cooperative without regulatory authority over its members.
Instead, global standards set by the banks themselves could help protect against future cybersecurity incidents, as protocols could help prevent human errors from sparking more incidents. And global cybersecurity standards would be some of the first of their kind across industries, as many sectors are trying to keep and defend against the threats they face.
Other institutions are now getting involved in the effort to protect financial institutions from cyber theft. Earlier this week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a new regulation requiring banks, insurance companies and other financial services institutions regulated by the State Department of Financial Services to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program.
