A customer of a bank or other payment institution who suffers financial loss as a result of fraud has the right to claim reimbursement of the lost amount. in the event of refusal, he or she can use the help of the Financial Ombudsman. This was reminded by a representative of this office as part of a discussion at the Cybersec Forum 2021 conference.
According to prof. Jakub Szczerbowski, Director of the Banking and Capital Market Customer Unit at the Financial Ombudsman’s Office, the Payment Services Act clearly defines these issues. Any customer may demand that banks or other payment institutions return funds that have been stolen from their accounts.
If your complaint is rejected, you can turn to the Financial Ombudsman for help. The Office provides several forms of assistance to customers. The first one is the so-called intervention, i.e. continuation of the complaint procedure.
The Financial Ombudsman is trying to change the institution’s position and, as prof. Szczerbowski emphasized – the effectiveness of this type of action is at the level of 46 percent. Another form of assistance is mediation between the institution and the customer in order to reach a compromise.
In exceptional circumstances, the Financial Ombudsman may also assist in bringing an action before a common court against a financial institution. This is the case when, for example, there is a need to shape a line of case law or the case is unprecedented and the Office involvement will be required.
During the panel devoted to the security of financial customers in the digital world Mateusz Górnisiewicz, Deputy Director of the Cyber Security Department of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) reminded about the problem of data phishing, presenting some of the most common scenarios carried out by criminals.
The scam usually takes place in direct contact with the customer, when during a phone conversation the criminal impersonates a bank or payment institution employee. He or she can also encourage the installation of malware to monitor the activity of a customer’s mobile device.
The representative of KNF recommended verifying the legality of operation of a given payment institution on the website of the authority, where registers of regulated or notified entities are kept. There is also a list of entities that potentially threaten the security of customers.
Kamil Giereś, Head of Legal Allegro Pay, presented solutions used by the auction service to protect customers against fraud, mentioning both the verification of sellers as well as the buyer protection program, transaction monitoring and security system with two-factor authentication.
The innovative payment system solution using retinal scanning was described by Krystian Kulczycki, CEO of PayEye. A pilot program with the use of terminals is currently carried out in Wrocław and according to expert studies, provides a high level of security.
A panel on the security of financial customers in the digital world was held as part of the Cybersec Forum conference on September 1-2, 2021 organised in Krynica Górska.
Source: PAP MediaRoom
