FG fines Fidelity Bank N555.8m over data breach

The National Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has fined Fidelity Bank N555.8m for violating customers’ data privacy.

Mr. Vincent Olatunji, NDPC’s National Commissioner,  said this on Wednesday in Abuja at the Validation Workshop on the Nigeria Data Protection Act General Application and Implementation Directive.

According to him, the fine which was issued on Tuesday must be paid within the next 14 days.

Olatunji said the Commission had been investigating the bank since April 2023 and that it decided to issue the full penalty due to the bank’s arrogance on the matter.

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Olatunji said the bank violated the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) of 2019 and the Nigeria Data Protection (NDP) Act of 2023.

The fine amounts to 0.1 percent of the bank’s annual gross revenue for 2023.

He said that the fine which represents the highest fine to be issued by the commission was aggravated by the bank’s arrogance and poor cooperation during its investigation.

He said: “We have stated that non-compliance will be punished. We have penalties that range from N10m or up to two per cent of gross earnings for the previous year.

“But our approach has been creating awareness and letting people know what we are supposed to be doing and most of the breaches we try to look at the level of breach, impact, and the number of data subjects affected and the level of cooperation by the organisation involved on the remuneration fee.

“Since we started, the major penalty we issued was yesterday (Tuesday) on fidelity bank. For the violation of the NDP Act, 2023, and the NDPR, 2019, we issued a fine of N555.8m and they have to pay.

“We have observed serious breaches and we have been working with them, investigating the issue since April 2023. But by the time we finalised our findings, they became arrogant and we decided to issue a full penalty on them which is about 0.1 per cent of their earnings for 2023.”

He said the development underscores the commission’s commitment to enforcing data protection laws and holding organizations accountable for safeguarding customers’ data.