Scams: PM supports UK model for banks to refund fraud victims

PARLIAMENT | Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has expressed his support for a stricter policy that puts more responsibility on banks to protect their account holders from fraud.

Speaking at the Dewan Rakyat, Anwar said he agreed that Malaysia should emulate a new policy that the UK adopted - which gives account holders the right to get reimbursed for the money they lost to scammers.

“And I agree that such principles should also be applied here. But this perhaps is still being studied by a committee that is chaired by the Treasury secretary-general.

“We will also study how (the law) can be tightened so banks will be held responsible, should they be found to be careless in monitoring and ensuring compliance of every rule,” he said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time this morning.

Anwar was responding to a supplementary question from Nurul Amin Hamid (PN-Padang Terap), who wanted to know Malaysia’s commitment towards holding banks responsible in preventing scam cases.

The PAS leader cited a new policy in the UK, which requires payment service providers to reimburse their customers who fall victim to authorised push payment (APP) fraud.

Under the UK policy which came into effect in October, banks are required to refund scam victims up to £85,000 within five days.

Earlier Anwar, in answering a question from Suhaizan Kaiat (Harapan-Pulai) revealed that victims of online crimes had lost a cumulative amount of RM1.224 billion between January and October this year.

These involved cases like online scams, telecommunications fraud, love scams and non-existent loans and investments.

According to the prime minister, the police’s SemakMule application also showed a worrying figure where it has so far listed over 181,000 phone numbers and over 222,000 bank accounts for alleged involvement in fraud cases.

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