Hong Kong regulator, banks go back and forth on who pays scam-loss claims
City’s de facto central bank issues ‘responsibility framework’ on thorny issue of who pays in cases where customers willingly transfer funds
Hong Kong’s de facto central bank reached out to retail banks on Friday for input on how lenders and their customers should share responsibility for losses when the customers fall victim to scams, as such cases continue to rise in the city.
Such cases differ from frauds in which scammers gain control of accounts and authorise payments themselves.
Customers have a responsibility to protect themselves from authorising payments to scammers, Yuen said on Friday at the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers annual conference.
“It would be unrealistic and really unfair to expect banks to be able to prevent every scam transaction right away,” he said. “But at the same time, we should emphasise that banks should have effective measures in place to support customers in doing that.”
Certain circumstances complicated these claims, such as if the customer was elderly, and should be taken into consideration when assessing such cases, he said.