Banks will not charge for SMS alerts from January 2019

ISLAMABAD: From January 1, 2019, every single commercial banks and mobile financial service providers (like Easy Paisa and Jazz Cash) will not be charging any individual for text message alerts that you receive after making any financial transactions.

Presently, almost all banks charge around Rs 100 per month for sending an SMS alert after any financial transaction are performed via ATM or online.

The SMS alert service is very helpful, as customers can instantly alert their bank in case of illegal access, but it is a paid attribute that consist of a federal tax as well, which dishearten consumers from availing this security ease, as a lot of people merely don’t want to pay the fee.

The modification of policy is the outcome of a numerous instructions the central bank has formulated to commercial banks whose unfortunate state of information security was uncovered by a recent cyber-attacks.

SBP stated that, “All banks and other financial service providers shall propel free of charge transaction alerts to their customers through both mediums such as SMS and email for all international and domestic digital transactions.”

Also SBP, has occasionally condemn for not taking severe action against such acts. But now SBP has instructed all banks to take stern security measures for enhanced security of their payment and information systems.

Following are several points from the SBP’s instructions to the banks.

• All banks shall upgrade their systems by March 31 in a way that enables customers to activate or block their cards for online and international transactions as and when they wish.
• All banks shall replace existing payment cards (debit and credit) with EMV chip-and-PIN payment cards by June 30, 2019. This is technology upgrade will protect customers against skimming attacks, which steal their card information by planting skimming devices at ATMs or point of sale machines — this is what happened to HBL customers last December.
• All banks will carry out internal vulnerability assessment and testing to identify flaws in their payment systems for all local and international transactions and submit a plan by latest March 31 stating how and when they will fix the vulnerabilities.
• All banks will carry out third-party testing of their systems for vulnerabilities and submit their reports by the end of 2019.
• All banks will activate online banking services after biometric verification of their customers.
• All banks shall develop real-time fraud monitoring tools by January 31 and develop a procedure to report threats and their response to the same
• All banks should ensure 24-hour monitoring of online payments and develop a communication system to alert international partners for immediate action
• All banks shall impose a daily transaction limit with international partners for cross-border transactions to minimize their exposure to cyber threats
• All banks should report to customers within 48 hours in case their data is compromised and compensate them in two business days. The breach should also be reported to the SBP within 48 hours.
• All banks shall continue to educate customers about prevailing banking fraud, such as SMS spoofing, impersonation by fraudsters — like those BISP and Jeeto Pakistan messages that ask for your personal information and tempt you into believing that you won some money.

Furthermore, if these instructions are not fulfilled then it will lead to heavy fines including but not limited to the deferral of non-compliant digital payment products and services of the banks and financial service providers.