FinMin calls meeting of bankers to deal with digital payment fraud

The Finance Ministry has called a meeting of senior bankers and RBI representatives on Tuesday to discuss steps to deal with increasing digital payment fraud and cyber security issue.

The meeting to be chaired by Financial Services Secretary will discuss issues related to financial cyber security and increasing digital payment fraud, sources said.

During the meeting Indian Cyber Crime Co-ordination Centre will make a presentation on the latest statistics of digital payment frauds as reported in National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP), including challenges and issues faced in countering such issues.

The meeting is expected to be attended by senior official of Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Revenue, Department of Telecom, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and National Payments Corporation of India.

The meeting assumes significance in view of digital fraud witnessed by UCO Bank and Bank of Baroda in the recent past.

Earlier this month, Kolkata-based public sector lender UCO Bank reported erroneous credit of Rs 820 crore to account holders of the bank via Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).

During November 10-13, the bank observed, due to technical issues in IMPS, certain transaction(s) initiated by holders of other banks have resulted in credit to the account holders in UCO Bank without actual receipt of money from these banks.

IMPS is a real-time interbank electronic funds transfer system without any intervention.

The bank blocked the recipients' accounts and has been able to recover Rs 649 crore of the Rs 820 crore, or about 79 per cent of the amount.

The state-owned bank is yet to clarify whether this technical glitch was due to human error or a hacking attempt.

However, the bank has reported the matter to the law enforcement agencies for necessary action.