Date: For Parliament Sitting on 12 November 2024 

Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament

Mr Desmond Choo, MP, Tampines GRC

Mr Yip Hon Weng, MP, Yio Chu Kang SMC 

Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim, MP, Chua Chu Kang GRC

Question:

To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in respect of the Shared Responsibility Framework which requires financial institutions to impose a cooling-off period upon activation of digital security tokens (a) whether MAS can consider extending or adjusting the cooling-off period based on the type of high-risk activities to prevent rapid fund depletion; and (b) whether there are plans to enhance the real-time fraud surveillance threshold of more than half of a balance of at least $50,000 in the detection of rapid draining of accounts to cover smaller but significant losses.

To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance in respect of the Shared Responsibility Framework (SRF) (a) what measures are in place to assist more vulnerable residents, such as seniors or less tech-savvy individuals, in navigating the SRF and avoiding scams effectively; and (b) whether the Ministry can provide more details on how payout decisions will be communicated to scam victims under the SRF for transparency in the criteria used for reimbursement.

To ask the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance what are the measures or plans to raise public awareness on the steps that the public can take to prevent scams or to seek redress from financial instructions upon the implementation of the Shared Responsibility Framework for phishing scams.

Answer by Mr Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Board member of MAS, on behalf of Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and Chairman of MAS:

1.         Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take the question raised by Mr Desmond Choo in today’s Order Paper, as well as Mr Yip Hon Weng and Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim’s questions filed for the Sitting on or after 12 November on the Shared Responsibility Framework, or SRF.

2.         Members asked about possible refinements to SRF duties, measures to help customers, particularly seniors or the less tech-savvy to navigate and seek redress under SRF, as well as efforts to raise public awareness on scams.

3.         I will first respond to the question on the 12-hour cooling period upon activation of a digital security token. This is a minimum period that financial institutions (FIs) must apply to specified high-risk activities once a customer has activated a digital security token on his or her mobile device. High-risk activities are typically performed by scammers during an account takeover to transfer funds without a customer’s knowledge. The 12-hour minimum period thus gives customers sufficient time to act on abnormal activities in their account, while balancing inconvenience to customers from undue friction to legitimate activities. 

4.         Next, on real-time fraud surveillance duty. In calibrating the threshold, we must strike a balance between protecting consumers and the inconvenience posed to consumers conducting legitimate transactions. SRF introduces a requirement to block or hold transactions above the prescribed perimeters. Setting a lower value could generate too many false alerts, and result in inconvenience to the majority of customers. That said, MAS expects banks to take into account other factors, such as a consumer’s profile and potential vulnerability to scams, as well as their spending patterns, as part of their holistic approach towards fraud surveillance. These go beyond what is set out under the SRF, which is an accountability framework designed with discrete, objective and verifiable duties for FIs and telecommunication companies, or Telcos for short.

5.         I will now address questions about operationalising the SRF. A victim who qualifies for a claim assessment under the SRF should contact his or her FI immediately, and report the incident to the Police. In the case of a phishing scam within the SRF, FIs will coordinate their investigation with the Telcos as necessary. Upon completion of any case investigation, including an SRF-related case, the FI will provide a written reply to the customer on the outcome of the investigation.  If there is a breach of any SRF duty by the FI or Telco, the FI or Telco is expected to provide payouts to the customer. If the customer does not agree with the investigation outcome, he or she may seek further recourse, such as via the Financial Industry Dispute Resolution Centre.

6.         Raising public awareness remains key in the fight against scams, particularly for vulnerable groups. The Government recently consolidated anti-scam resources into a one-stop portal, the ScamShield Suite, to equip members of the public with anti-scam resources. MAS and banks also partner other government agencies, such as the Silver Generation Office and People’s Association, to include anti scam-related content in their outreach to seniors. MAS and banks will continue to step up these efforts to expand our outreach.

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