Nairobi, Aug. 31 -- Stanbic Bank Kenya has been ordered to refund a customer Sh511,000 after a court found that weaknesses in its customer verification and digital onboarding systems enabled fraudsters to access and drain his account.

In a judgment that underscores the importance of stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) controls, the Small Claims Court held that the bank's self-registration process for its OMNI digital banking platform failed to provide adequate safeguards when activating a new digital channel on an existing account.

The court in a judgment on August 25, ruled that banks have a duty of care to ensure significant changes to customer accounts, such as the activation of internet or mobile banking services, are subjected to ro...