Inconvenience may be the price for more banking security
UPDATE (10:17pm to change headline)
Planned measures by banks in Singapore to boost the security of payment card transactions are likely to cause some inconvenience to users.
Banks will confine the usage of all new and existing ATM cards only to Singapore by end-June this year, unless otherwise instructed by customers, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) announced on Friday.
This means that customers planning to use their ATM cards anywhere outside Singapore will have to ask their respective banks to activate their cards for that purpose. Similarly, customers will need to request the cards be deactivated when they return.
Said sales executive Claudia Goh, “I understand it’s a safety precaution but it’s going to be so much of a hassle.”
“What if I forget to activate my card and I need the money urgently overseas? How long will it take before I actually reach an operator? And who’s going to bear the overseas call charges?” asked the 29-year-old.
Also by 30 June, all banks will send out real-time SMS transaction alerts on withdrawals from local and overseas ATMs above a certain threshold.
ABS is also in discussion with banks to set out industry standards on the type of alerts to be sent out for any banking transactions.
By the end of this year, all member banks will be issuing new tokens with enhanced security features for online banking transactions. It is understood that customers with more than one bank may then have to carry around more than one token if physical tokens are issued.
The industry body revealed that these revisions were “fast-tracked” in light of the recent series of fraudulent cash withdrawals from DBS ATM machines.
ABS also announced that the entire banking industry will adopt smart chip technology in ATM cards by 2014.
All ATM and NETS point-of-sale networks will have to be changed to adopt the new system. Current magnetic stripes on cards will be retained.
Other planned measures include issuance of credit and debit cards that can be used only after customers request for activation, and migration of credit cards to EMV chip technology, a global standard.
“ABS recognises that customers are concerned about the safety of their deposits and accounts,” ABS director Ong-Ang Ai Boon said. “They can be assured that ABS and its members are constantly enhancing and implementing new security measures to address such concerns.”
