Ministry of Finance promises measures to check 'banking' cyber crimes

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a Cyber Security Framework in Banks, making it mandatory for banks to put in place a Board-approved cyber-security policy, which covers the risks from cyber threats and the measures to address these risks.

This was stated by Minister of State for Finance, Santosh Kumar Gangwar in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

As per data reported by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the number of cyber crime pertaining to credit card, ATM, debit card and Internet banking shows a marginal increase of 4.4% from 13,083 in 2014-15, to 13,653 in 2016-17.

The RBI has hence issued instructions to banks for reversal of inaccurate debits arising from fraudulent or any other transactions.

The instructions have been issued for Board-approved bank policy to cover customer protection, mechanism of compensating customer for unauthorised electronic banking transactions, and display of the same on the bank's website.

Under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, if a customer does not receive any reply within a period of one month after representation of the receipt by the bank, or is not satisfied with the reply given, he can file a complaint before the Ombudsman.

The Ombudsan can ask the bank to pay compensation of up to Rs. 20 lakh to the customer for loss suffered by the customer due to an act of omission by the bank, and also compensation up to Rs. 1 lakh for mental agony and harassment.