European banks join forces with Europol to fight cybercrime

The European Banking Federation (EBF), which represents about 4,500 banks, and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, known as EC3, had signed a memorandum of understanding to intensify cooperation between law enforcement and the financial sector.

Banks are facing frequent attacks from sophisticated hackers. Wall Street bank JP Morgan has worked with US law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible cyber-attack, and Royal Bank of Scotland and its UK peers have suffered attacks by hackers that have disrupted systems.

Cybercrime attacks faced by banks include coordinated attempts to disrupt websites, payment card fraud, and attempts to infiltrate systems to steal money.

The agreement between the EBF, which is a federation of 32 national banking lobby groups, and EC3, which links cybercrime divisions of police forces in EU countries, will allow them to exchange know-how, statistics and strategic information.