The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Updates Its E-payments Guidelines Based on Customer Feedback
Customers of financial institution can continue setting a threshold of e-payment notifications even when the guidelines take effect end of June 2019. Customers of financial institutions and banks are advised to receive an alert whenever the customer makes an electronic payment or e-payment for all transactions. This is to track e-payment spending as well as kept posted of authorised sales.
Too Many Notifications
Whenever a customer of a bank or financial institution makes a transaction digitally, it is considered an e-payment. It is imperative for each e-payment transaction to have a notification sent to the customer to ensure that the customer knows about the transaction. E-payments and transaction notifications can become too many for some when even trivial e-payments receive notifications. Too many notifications may add up to the clutter or also go unnoticed.
Setting a Threshold
Such a matter has raised concerns among e-payment users that they receive too many notifications. The e-payments user protection guidelines state that financial institutions must provide notification on all e-payments to their customers. The guidelines, however, did not indicate any threshold notifications that customers can set with their respective banks. Based on customer feedbacks, MAS has recently updated the directive to include a clause that customers can continue to set a threshold for the number of e-payment notification received.
Implications
As customers can choose to receive fewer notifications, customers can be subjected to an unauthorised transaction to go unnoticed and their accountability for every e-payment. Should an unauthorised transaction goes through, and the customer does not receive any notification by the financial institution, the customer may be too late in reporting such matter to the financial institution to investigate the transaction. Implications such as this could happen if customers choose to receive e-payments notifications set at a certain amount. The guidelines expect banks to inform every customer of the consequences if the customer prefers to set a threshold for e-payments notifications.
For the Better
As globalisation and digitalisation intertwine with our daily lives, it is crucial for every monetary transaction to be monitored to avoid unnecessary disputes. Customers of a financial institution may complain about receiving a lot of e-payment notification, yet it is for their good and at least have a peace of mind to know that every e-payment is accountable even if it is just a minor transaction. An unauthorised transaction can happen anytime even to the most careful digital payment user; hence, when a notification is received, the customer can act promptly by reporting the matter to the financial institution for further action. It is a case of balancing between enhanced customer security and customer-oriented needs. When money is concerned, the former is much more preferred by many quarters.