Singapore: According to Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan, blocking or holding deals as part of their fraud surveillance duties” could lead to very numerous false updates” and cause pain for most bank clients,” according to Minister of State for Trade and Industry in parliament on Tuesday ( Nov 12 ).
The shared accountability framework for phishing scams, which may begin on December 16, was raised by Mr. Tan.  ,
The foundation, first mooted in early 2022, seeks to recommend how loss arising from phishing schemes will be shared among financial institutions, telecom companies and consumers. It spells out specific duties for the companies, making them liable to pay if they have fallen short of their responsibilities.
Banks are required to carry out real-time fraud surveillance to “detect if a customer’s account is being rapidly drained of a significant sum” as part of the finalized framework.
If an account had an account balance of S$ 50, 000 or more immediately prior to the unauthorised transaction and more than half of that account balance had been transferred out within the previous 24 hours, it would be regarded as having been quickly drained of significant sum.
The financial institution must either stop the suspicious transaction until the customer can provide additional verification, or notify the customer while the transaction is being held for at least 24 hours.
Mr. Tan responded to inquiries about how the S$ 50, 000 threshold was set, arguing that the authorities “must strike a balance between protecting customers and the inconvenience posed to customers conducting legitimate transactions.”
He claimed that setting a lower value would cause the majority of customers to be uncomfortably unprepared.
However, banks are expected by the Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) to consider other factors in their fraud surveillance. These include a customer’s profile and potential vulnerability to scams, as well as spending patterns.
As a member of the MAS board, Mr. Tan said,” These go beyond what is stated in the ( shared responsibility framework].”