More than one million online banking accounts were compromised by infostealers last year, as financial cyberthreats shifted toward credential theft and data reuse.

Pic credit…cybelangel.com

Attackers are moving away from traditional PC banking malware and increasingly relying on social engineering and dark web marketplaces, while mobile financial malware continues to grow.

Detailed information on current financial cyberthreat trends is available in Kaspersky’s new report.

These digital “pickpockets” often exfiltrate data and remove themselves within seconds, making them difficult to detect.

They are a primary source of initial access for ransomware and identity theft

Traditional financial phishing has not gone away. Pages that mimicked e-shops dominated the financial phishing landscape (48.5% in 2025, up 10.3% from 2024), followed by banks (26.1% in 2025, down by 16.5% from 2024) and payment systems (25.5% in 2025, up by 6.2% from 2024). The decline in bank phishing may suggest that these services are becoming increasingly difficult to successfully impersonate, and fraudsters are turning to easier ways to access users’ finances.

Attackers are adapting campaigns to regional digital habits. In the Middle East, financial phishing is overwhelmingly concentrated on e-commerce (85.8%), indicating a heavy reliance on online retail lures, whereas in Africa bank-related phishing leads (53.75%), which may indicate that user account security there is still insufficient. Latin America shows a more balanced distribution but with a higher share of e-commerce and bank targeting, while APAC and Europe display a more even spread across all three categories, pointing to diversified attack strategies.

In 2025, the decline in users affected by financial PC malware continued as users increasingly rely on mobile devices to manage their finances. Contrary to PC banking malware, mobile banker attacks grew by 1.5 times in 2025 compared to the previous year.

Complementing traditional financial malware, infostealers played a significant role in enabling financial crime both on PCs and mobile devices by harvesting login credentials, cookies, bank card numbers, crypto wallet seed phrases, and autofill data from browsers and applications, which attackers then used for account takeovers or direct banking fraud. Kaspersky data pointed to a surge in infostealer detections (up by 59% globally, 53% in Africa and 26% in the Middle East, on PCs from 2024 to 2025), fueling credential-based attacks.

According to Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence (DFI), in 2025 over one million online banking accounts served by the world’s 100 largest banks fell victim to infostealers: credentials for these accounts were being freely shared on the dark web. The countries with the highest median number of compromised accounts per bank were India, Spain, and Brazil.

74% of payment cards that were compromised by infostealer malware, published on dark web resources and identified by Kaspersky DFI team in 2025, remained valid as of March 2026. This means that attackers could still use cards that had been stolen months or even years prior.

“The dark web has become a central hub for financial cybercrime. Stolen credentials and bank cards that have been harvested by infostealers are aggregated, repackaged, and sold there, while phishing kits targeted at users of financial products are offered as ready-to-use services.

This creates a self-sustaining ecosystem where data theft and fraud operations reinforce each other, making attacks scalable and easy to carry out by fraudsters with minimal experience. Breaking this cycle requires proactive threat intelligence on the part of organisations, and increased awareness and scrutiny from individual users,” comments Polina Tretyak, Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence analyst.

By Lukman Otunuga, Head of Market Research, FXTM.

The Naira is the second best performing African currency against the dollar year-to-date, only surpassed by the Zambian Kwacha.

Lukman Otunuga

Its stability through conflict-induced volatility is commendable, but such has come at a heavy cost.  Nigeria’s foreign-exchange reserves have fallen for 16 consecutive days through April 8 – falling to its lowest since mid-Feb to $48.94 billion. The CBN followed its pledge to defend in the local currency in March as deepening geopolitical risk punished emerging market assets.

On the data front, it’s a big week for Nigeria due to the incoming inflation report for March.

Nigeria’s CPI is expected to have eased to 13.4% yoy from the 15.1% in February. Persistent signs of easing inflationary pressures may encourage the CBN to cut rates in an environment where other central banks are considering hiking to tame conflict-induced inflation.

Over the weekend, US-Iran peace talks concluded without a resolution.

Despite a marathon 21 hours of negotiations, both sides were unable to agree on key issues, including Iran’s nuclear program and its control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Hours after Trump threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz from Monday 10 am ET.

This fresh uncertainty was reflected across markets this morning, with risk aversion affecting equities, while oil benchmarks surged amid rising geopolitical risk premiums.

Given how Iran has rejected US restrictions on shipping and threatened Gulf ports, sentiment remains fragile and highly sensitive with markets on high alert.

It’s worth noting that the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed since late February, raising the risk of inflation and growth shocks that threaten the global economy.

In the commodity space, oil benchmarks surged as the US vowed to blockade all vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent rallied as much as 9% to roughly 104$ a barrel as supply shock fears returned with a vengeance. Deepening conflict may keep oil prices elevated, with triple digits potentially becoming a new normal amid extreme supply tightness.

Gold initially declined on rising inflation concerns as oil prices surged. Despite prices jumping back above $4700 bears remain in control amid rising inflationary risks. Given how expectations have basically diminished over lower rates in 2026, gold is likely to remain on the backfoot with a stronger dollar keep bears in the game. Key levels of interest can be found $4825, $4700 and $4600.

As the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) recapitalisation exercise came to an end March 31, 2026, most banks operating in the country rose to the challenge and met the requirement ahead of time.

Fidelity Bank

However, Fidelity Bank’s proactive approach paid off, and it continued to demonstrate its commitment to growth and innovation. In a remarkable display of investor confidence, Fidelity Bank opened and concluded a private placement in just one day on December 31, 2025. Leading institutions, including AFREXIM Bank and its subsidiaries, invested in the bank, showcasing their faith in Fidelity’s vision and leadership.

With the CBN’s verification process complete, Fidelity Bank’s capital base now exceeds the required N500 billion threshold. This milestone positions the bank to expand its footprint, drive growth, and deliver returns to investors.

Market analysts stated that the successful completion of the private placement underscores strong investor confidence in the bank’s growth strategy, governance framework and long-term fundamentals, even amid tightening regulatory standards and evolving macroeconomic conditions.

The lender had announced to the investing public that it has surpassed the N500billion regulatory capital threshold following the successful completion of a N259billion private placement of ordinary shares.

The Company Secretary, Fidelity Bank, Ezinwa Unuigboje in a signed statement on Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) disclosed that the private placement, conducted with the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was opened and closed on December 31, 2025.

According to her, the proceeds from the exercise lifted Fidelity Bank’s eligible capital from N305.5billion to N564.5billion, subject to final regulatory approvals.

The latest capital raise positions the lender comfortably above the new minimum capital requirement of N500billion for commercial banks with international authorisation, as stipulated by the apex bank under its banking sector recapitalisation programme. According to the bank, the private placement was carried out pursuant to the mandate granted by shareholders at its Extraordinary General Meeting held on February 6, 2025.

At the meeting, shareholders authorised the board to issue up to 20 billion ordinary shares through a private placement as part of measures to strengthen the bank’s capital base and enhance its capacity to support economic growth. The N259billion raised through the private placement builds on earlier capital-raising efforts by the bank. Fidelity Bank had stolen the show by taking a bold step in June 2024, launching a Public Offer and Rights Issue to raise capital.

Fidelity Bank successfully raised N175.85billion via a combination of a public offer and rights issue, which had increased its eligible capital to N305.5billion at the time. That exercise left a capital shortfall of N194.5billion relative to the new regulatory benchmark, a gap now fully covered by the latest transaction.

Fidelity Bank’s strategic moves have set it up for success, and the stage is set for the bank to make significant strides in the Nigerian banking sector. Fidelity Bank noted that the strengthened capital position will enhance its balance sheet resilience, support business expansion, and enable it to play a more robust role in financing key sectors of the Nigerian economy, in line with regulatory expectations.

The bank added that it remains focused on value creation for shareholders, prudent risk management and sustained profitability as it navigates the post-recapitalisation phase of the banking sector. Meanwhile, the stock price of Fidelity Bank closed trading April 10, 2026 at N19.50 per share on the NGX.

As reported by Kayode Tokede of Thisday Newspaper