Chong: Banks must be liable for customers’ financial losses due to security breach

Chong (left) is seen during the press conference with Phui.

KUCHING (June 9): Banks should be responsible for the financial losses of their customers in the event of security breach, said DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen.

According to him, cases of unauthorised fund transfers have been rampant of late but banks have not been willing to be held accountable for loss occurred due to the fraudulent transactions.

“That is not very responsible of the banks. After all, customers keep their money at the bank and the money is in their (bank) custody.

“But yet, when money is lost, the bank is pushing the responsibility to the (affected) customers or account holders and they are not willing to reimburse for the loss,” he told a press conference which was held live via Facebook.

The Padungan assemblyman brought up this issue having received the third of such cases within a month.

He said the latest victim, surnamed Phui, had approached him for assistance after no further details were furnished to Phui by his banks concerning his hacked accounts which resulted in a loss of RM46,100.

“Phui had his accounts from two separate banks hacked and the funds were transferred out of these accounts in December last year.

“On Dec 17, one of the accounts had three unauthorised transactions amounting to RM25,400 while the other account also had three unauthorised transactions totalling RM20,700 on the same day as well.

“Phui only discovered the fraudulent transactions on Dec 27 when he accessed his accounts to check the balance,” explained Chong.

He said the victim immediately lodged a report on the unauthorised transactions to the police and the two banks.

“However until today, there is no news on the outcome of the investigation and the banks did not indicate whether they are going to reimburse him his money or not,” he said.

Chong, who is also Stampin MP, said he will assist Phui in filing the issue to the Ombudsman for Financial Services (OFS) as well as bring up the matter to Parliament.

“I will also be writing to the Ministry of Finance and Bank Negara to urge for a general directive that banks must be made to take up the responsibility for financial losses of their customers in such cases,” he said.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3aG0cT4
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