The Central Bank of Libya today announced its national strategy to accelerate digital payments and promote financial inclusion, in cooperation with Oliver Wyman. The strategy includes developing instant payments, digital banking identity, open banking services, card systems, points of acceptance, and electronic collection systems.
This is a step the Libyan financial sector needs, and the pace of transformation is clear in the Central Bank’s own figures: approximately LYD 643 billion in electronic transactions between January and July 2026, and more than 270,000 points of sale.
This represents an important transformation needed by Libya’s financial sector, with its pace clearly reflected in the figures of the Central Bank of Libya: the value of electronic transactions between January and July 2026 reached approximately LYD 643 billion, while the number of points of sale exceeded 270,000. These indicators reflect a rapid shift toward a financial environment that relies increasingly on digital channels.
In parallel with this development, Tahaqaq is drawing attention to a challenge accompanied by the expansion of digital financial fraud.
During August alone, and as of the date of this message before the end of the month, the Tahaqaq team identified more than 280 fraudulent advertisements and pages impersonating Libyan banks and banking services. We will publish the findings in September, including a detailed account of the results of this monitoring, such as its methodology, classification, and the fraud patterns documented during the month.
The number is only one aspect of the picture; the methods themselves are evolving. Some pages impersonate customer service departments, while sponsored advertisements lead to fraudulent websites and fake banking interfaces. There are also attempts to obtain verification codes and access credentials, along with social-engineering tactics that exploit and adapt to every new banking service used by Libyans, searching for any method, approach, or knowledge gap through which to conduct phishing attacks and bring down new victims.
As digital payments expand, the opportunity for fraud networks expands to the same extent. They typically focus on the gap between the speed at which a service develops and users’ awareness of how to use it safely. This gap is more apparent in countries experiencing rapid growth in digital payment infrastructure, including Libya.
For this reason, Tahaqaq calls for awareness and protection to be regarded as integral parts of the development process, not as subsequent steps, so that every new digital service is accompanied—and even preceded—by preventive measures that reduce opportunities for exploitation, related threats, and vulnerabilities that could be exploited, as well as the launch of joint, collaborative awareness campaigns addressing the risks, methods, and patterns of fraud.
Today’s threat comes not so much from a technical vulnerability as from the digital space, social media platforms, social-engineering tactics, and phishing operations. Many countries treat this as a standalone weakness on the part of the user rather than the service provider—one that requires broad public awareness and verification and early-warning capabilities, alongside response centers and immediate technical support to limit the damage after an incident occurs.
The transition to digital payments is an important step for Libya and the development of its infrastructure, and it deserves recognition and encouragement for making life easier and ensuring convenient and rapid use, provided that users are aware of safe usage practices. Its success is linked to preserving and strengthening user trust, as well as to the level of protection and awareness users have in the digital space.
Tahaqaq to combat digital fraud and banking identity impersonation
