KARACHI: In order to ensure the security of digital payments, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has advised banks and Microfinance Banks (MFBs) to ensure that all One-Time Passwords (OTPs) as well as SMS alerts for financial transactions are generated and sent immediately after customers’ accounts are either debited or credited.
In November 2018, the SBP directed banks and MFBs to send free of cost transaction alerts to their customers through both SMS and email (where email addresses of customers are available) for all international and domestic digital transactions including but not limited to ATMs, POS terminals and Internet banking transactions. It was also mentioned that such transaction alerts must be generated and relayed to the customers immediately after execution of the transaction.
However, the SBP observed that these instructions are not being meticulously complied with; and customers do not receive SMS alerts immediately despite posting of transactions in their accounts resulting in non-compliance of regulatory instructions as well as causing difficulty for sender and receiver of funds.
Similarly, a number of times, customers also do not receive their One-Time Passwords (OTPs) via SMS on time due to which they face difficulty in completing their transactions.
Therefore, the SBP has advised the banks and MFBs to ensure that all OTPs as well as SMS alerts for financial transactions are generated and sent immediately after customers’ accounts are either debited or credited.
In addition, banks and MFBs also ensure that customers will also receive the credit/debit confirmation advice through email and in-app notifications (where applicable and available).
The SBP said that these instructions are applicable with immediate effect and failure to comply with the above instructions will lead to penal action by SBP as per the relevant legal and regulatory provisions.
With effect from January 1, 2019, banks/MFBs were required to send free of cost transaction alerts to their customers through both SMS and email for all international and domestic digital transactions including but not limited to ATM, POS and Internet banking transactions.
As per the SBP instructions, such transaction alerts must be generated and relayed to customers immediately after the execution of transaction. For this purpose, banks were directed to be verified and updated in the bank/MFB’s database well before the deadline.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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