18 BARBADOS PUBLIC WORKERS’ CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT UNION LIMITED Board of Directors’ Report (Continued) supported by Surepay (BillPay), and at other financial institutions (RTP). • Allow for same day transfer/receipt of funds to/from other financial services institutions. • Provide members with confirmation of the completion of their transaction and the payment status making for easy tracking. • Allow members access to all billing parties supported by Surepay, both in the present and the future. Member Engagement We continued to attract new members, resulting in total membership of 111,118 as at the end of the reporting period, an increase from 107,506 as at March 31 2022. This growth demonstrates the trust and confidence the wider Barbadian community continues to have in our Credit Union’s ability to effectively meet their financial needs. The trust and confidence placed in us, being a memberowned co-operative is not something we take lightly, as well as ensuring a consistently high level of member satisfaction is critical to ensure this trust is not eroded. We are pleased to note that we continue to perform well in this area as we registered a Customer Satisfaction Score this year of 84.7 percent compared to 83.2 percent as at March 2022, both against a benchmark score of 80 percent. Despite the confidence placed in us as reflected in the membership growth and attainment of our benchmark customer satisfaction score, we know from the reports received that we have not provided as consistent a member experience as we would have liked during the reporting period. There have been reported challenges with our branch wait times, our loan turnaround times and generally our consistent delivery of the quality of service; in the branches and across our other channels. This area of quality service delivery continues to capture our attention as we engage with management to determine and address the root causes of the challenges being encountered. Cybersecurity & Resilience Cyberattacks and cybersecurity beaches and exposures pose significant risks to all businesses and is an ongoing issue for all financial institutions regardless of location. Locally we have seen the impact of these attacks across various sectors including retail, health and financial services. As part of our long-established defensive toolkit to proactively counter the possibility of these attacks within our systems, we regularly use independent external assessments to identify any deficiencies within our systems in order to ensure adequate mitigations are in place. Active penetration testing and authorised ethical hacking of our network are some of the tools used to detect infrastructural and system vulnerabilities, and to determine potential threats and areas of weaknesses that could be compromised by malicious/ bad actors. The tests simulate real-world attacks and the recommendations coming out of these partnered approaches are used to strengthen the security of our internal systems, networks and applications. This long-standing approach is a critical part of our technological defence to better withstand cyberattacks and has proven to be effective and resilient to date. In addition to these tests we also continue to review and upgrade our network security at both the hardware and software levels, while investing in our cybersecurity systems, frameworks and policies to stay one step ahead. Additionally, as most attacks have been shown to occur due to human error, employees are trained to be aware of, and assist with the prevention and mitigation of attacks that may seek to take advantage of internal weaknesses. This level of staff awareness is achieved through ongoing mandatory security awareness training and testing across the Group. As members, you too play a critical part in ensuring the safety and soundness of our technology environment and we encourage you to also take your awareness of security best practices and fraud mitigation as seriously as we do. We remind you that our online banking system allows you to set-up alerts that can prompt you regarding transaction activity and changes in balances on your accounts. This can be a useful tool to protect you against unauthorised access while jointly ensuring we maintain a secure environment. Updates to Key Matters of Significance Lower Broad Street Building
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