A good move by RBI

The RBI has come out with rules to make electronic banking transactions safer. The policy for all banks is tilted to favour customers, who won’t suffer any loss if unauthorised transactions are reported in three working days. The concept of “zero liability” and “limited liability” on any credit/debit card or online fraud will protect customers assuming they haven’t given away their card/account passwords to cybercriminals, whose numbers are rising daily. India is now the base for many scams run from BPO-like operations. These mostly seem aimed at US citizens as their greed dictates more returns are possible in dollars.

The new policy will also protect customers lured into revealing his/her PIN/password as the liability is limited after he/she reports this to the bank. In all other cases of card, ATM, point-of-sale or online fraud, the burden of proving customer liability rests upon the banker. “Zero liability” kicks in when a third party breaches card/bank security, where the “deficiency lies neither with the bank nor with the customer”. Customers can breathe easy over being hit by embezzlement of accounts by cyberthieves who hack into banks or use cloning tricks to cause havoc.

By making both the banks and their customers responsible for keeping communications lines open with SMS/emails on transactions, the RBI is trying to fortify the security of accounts further. If alerts come in real time, chances of detecting scams are higher. The clarity of the new rules show the RBI has acted in exemplary manner. It’s now up to bank users to resolve never to divulge their account data to anyone.