The National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) said on Friday that the attempted breach on its systems was “detected and contained on an immediate basis through its security measures”.

“During the early hours on Friday, June 16, 2023, an attempted breach on NIFT’s systems was detected, which was contained on an immediate basis through our security measures. We were able to prevent any significant compromise of our data or systems,” it said in a statement.

“Our dedicated teams are thoroughly investigating the attempted breach to understand its origin, nature, and any potential risk to ensure that our systems are secured before resuming our services completely.”

NIFT said it is working to restore services as quickly as possible to resume Clearing Services on Monday, June 19, 2023.

“All clearing instruments collected for Thursday and Friday normal clearing cycles will now be presented for inward clearing on Monday, June 19, 2023,” it added.

“NIFT would like to assure that we have taken all necessary measures to mitigate any risks associated with the attempted breach. The safety of our data, systems, and the trust our clients and stakeholders place in us remains our top priority.

“NIFT would like to extend our sincere thanks to our client banks and customers for their unwavering trust in NIFT during this challenge.”

About NIFT

NIFT is a Payments System Operator with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and engaged in two major businesses under SBP licences:

1 - It is the cheque clearing house for 43 Banks of Pakistan with Image-Based Clearing Services. It annually clears Rs46 trillion worth of inter-bank cheque payments between banks.

2 - It is the Internet Payment Gateway for card and account-based merchant payments under brand name of NIFT ePay.