In order to prevent the liability of customers in case of unauthorized electronic banking transaction, RBI has regulated a notification for both the customers and banks.
“With the increased thrust on financial inclusion and customer protection and considering the recent surge in customer grievances relating to unauthorized transactions resulting in debits to their accounts/cards, the criteria for determining the customer liability in these circumstances have been reviewed,” the Reserve Bank said in its notification.
The new guidelines by RBI are as follows:
- RBI has asked the banks to make SMS alerts and Email alert registration mandatory.
- The customers will have a zero liability if,:
- The fraud happens on the part of the bank.
- If it’s a third party breach (problem comes neither with the bank nor the customer, but elsewhere in the system) and the customer notifies the bank within three working days.
- The customer will suffer liability if,:
- In case, the loss is because of the customer’s carelessness of sharing the payment information, the whole loss will be suffered by the customer only. But if the loss comes after reporting the fraud to the bank, the bank will bear the loss.
- If the issue comes by the third party and customer fails to report the fraud within 3 days and it delays to four to seven working days, the liability for
- Basic Savings Bank Deposit (BSBD) account will be Rs 5,000.
- All other SB accounts, Pre-paid Payment Instruments and Gift Cards, Current Accounts/ Cash Credit/ Overdraft Accounts of limit up to Rs.25 lakh or Credit cards with limit up to Rs.5 lakh will bear the liability of Rs 10,000.
- All other Current/ Cash Credit/ Overdraft Accounts and Credit cards with limit above Rs.5 lakh will bear the highest liability of Rs 25,000.
- Within 10 days of the customer’s report (only customers with zero liability), the bank must reverse the amount of the transaction.
- RBI has also asked the banks to make sure that the complaint must be resolved within 90 days from the date of complaint.
