Banks asked to submit fraud data

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday directed all scheduled banks as well as micro finance banks to submit data of all digital frauds and scams on monthly basis while purview of reporting is also expanded from fake calls by fraudsters to other digital channels including mobile app, e-commerce transactions, ATMs and POS.

According to a circular letter issued by the SBP s Banking Conduct and Consumer Protection Department the data need to be submitted include all frauds and scams reported at call centres or through other means such as email, letters, or otherwise detected by the banks and MFBs themselves.

The central bank in February 2021 started collection of information to curtail digital banking frauds and directed banks and MFBs to submit relevant data but the data was mainly limited to information of fake calls.

Now the SBP has expanded the scope of data collection to other digital channels or medium used by fraudsters to extract amount from accounts which included mobile app or wallet, tokenization, e-commerce transactions, Merchant Payment Authorisation (via USSD/mobile app/internet banking), internet banking, USSD, BB Agent Retail Application, ATMs, POS and other digital channels.

Banks/ MFBs shall report data as per the prescribed format to the Banking Supervision Department (BSD)-2 of SBP on monthly basis within 10 days from the close of every month, the circular added.

SBP in collaboration with other stakeholders had initiated various measures to curtail digital banking frauds including collection of information in order to successfully design and deploy additional measures.