Bank account holder? This is what your lender must do on reporting of unauthorised transactions
Financial crimes have been on a rise in India. Cases of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions have been making headlines every other day. While you may lose your hard-earned money if you become a victim, you should also be careful and aware about the rules laid by the banks and the rights given to you by the Reserve Bank of India. Have you ever thought whom should you held accountable if an unauthorised transactions is carried out from your account? Here are nine such things that you should keep in mind:
Financial crime
1. Banks must ask their customers to mandatorily register for SMS alerts and wherever available register for e-mail alerts, for electronic banking transactions. The SMS alerts shall mandatorily be sent to the customers, while email alerts may be sent, wherever registered. (Representative image: Pixabay)
Financial crime: Unauthorised transaction
2. The customers must be advised to notify their bank of any unauthorised electronic banking transaction at the earliest after the occurrence of such transaction, and informed that the longer the time taken to notify the bank, the higher will be the risk of loss to the bank/ customer. (Representative image: PTI)
Reporting of financial crime
3. To facilitate this, banks must provide customers with 24x7 access through multiple channels (at a minimum, via website, phone banking, SMS, e-mail, IVR, a dedicated toll-free helpline, reporting to home branch, etc.) for reporting unauthorised transactions that have taken place and/ or loss or theft of payment instrument such as card, etc. (Representative image: IANS)
Financial crime: Instant messaging
4. Banks shall also enable customers to instantly respond by "Reply" to the SMS and e-mail alerts and the customers should not be required to search for a web page or an e-mail address to notify the objection, if any. (Representative image: Reuters)
Financial crime: Direct complaint link
5. Further, a direct link for lodging the complaints, with specific option to report unauthorised electronic transactions shall be provided by banks on home page of their website. (Representative image: Reuters)
Financial crime: Immediate response
6. The loss/ fraud reporting system shall also ensure that immediate response (including auto response) is sent to the customers acknowledging the complaint along with the registered complaint number. (Representative image: Reuters)
Financial crime: Time and date of reporting
7. The communication systems used by banks to send alerts and receive their responses thereto must record the time and date of delivery of the message and receipt of customer’s response, if any, to them. This shall be important in determining the extent of a customer’s liability. (Representative image: Reuters)
Financial crime: Mobile number
8. The banks may not offer facility of electronic transactions, other than ATM cash withdrawals, to customers who do not provide mobile numbers to the bank. (Representative image: PTI)
Financial crime: Steps against unauthorised transactions
9. On receipt of report of an unauthorised transaction from the customer, banks must take immediate steps to prevent further unauthorised transactions in the account. (Representative image: Reuters)
Financial crime: Do's and Dont's
If you follow the do's and dont's specified by the banks from time to time, you can keep away from being a victim of financial crimes. However, if you note any such transaction which is not initiated by you, you should immediately report your bank and register an FIR with the police station. (Representative image: PTI)