The Monetary Authority of Singapore said then it would publish, within three months, a draft framework for public consultation. But the process has taken “longer than expected” due to the complexity of the issues involved, the financial regulator said in previous parliamentary replies.
Ms Lim also gave three suggestions on how to better protect banking customers from scams. For instance, she urged the government to consider ideas from other jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, where from next year, banks will be required by law to reimburse fraud victims. The WP chair described this as “inadequate and unjust”, saying that customers are not sufficiently equipped to combat increasingly sophisticated scams.
It would also be difficult “on a practical level” for certain vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, to gather and present evidence to prove that they have taken necessary precautions, she added.Ms Lim noted that banks should take the lead in combating scams, given how they are “best positioned” and resourced to do so.
She said such solutions “can and should be implemented in Singapore”, covering all transfers between banks here via the FAST and PayNow systems. “However, the point remains that individual responsibility alone is insufficient to combat these increasingly sophisticated and malicious scams,” she said.