Author: Philip vanDyk

“Getting confirmation of payee designed, built, and implemented across the banking industry will be determined by a number of factors, including agreeing an account name and number matching solution, and ensuring it can be delivered by our retail banks. The solution will also need to comply with privacy law and banks’ obligations to protect customer… Read more »

“Online scams are growing, and fraud has become a significant factor in our lives, mirroring the rise in online activity. We call them digital ram raids; they’re robberies, and the only difference is the thief could be sitting in a darkened room in another part of the world.”

NZ Banking Association chief executive Roger Beaumont said the farm business advice support fund has been successful in providing farmers with financial advice.

“We’re looking at options for a confirmation of payee service to enable anyone making an online payment from one bank account to another to check the name of the account they are paying. We are investigating the technical ability to do this, along with privacy and information-sharing considerations.”

On December 20, the Banking Association said work on an anti-scam centre was progressing, and banks were now focusing on sharing additional information to help identify and reduce fraudulent payments to mule accounts.

The New Zealand Banking Association said banks are often involved in a chain of events that make up a scam, noting an approach that involves multiple sectors could improve the protection of customers against scams.

Bank lobby group the New Zealand Banking Association  says pledges made by the industry in September to combat scams and fraud against bank customers are progressing, with work now “live” on reducing fraudulent payments to mule accounts, and moves underway to establish a national Anti-Scam Centre.

“The first phase of work is now live and is focused on sharing additional information to help identify and reduce fraudulent payments to mule accounts. Banks were already sharing some information on money mules, but the new phase of work will increase the speed and amount of information being shared.”

New Zealand Banks Association chief executive officer Roger Beaumont told 1News the scams are essentially “digital ram-raids” but he can’t reveal too much about the banks’ collaboration effort. “We can’t go into too much detail because we don’t want to give the scammers too much information, but key information can be shared between banks.”