Other major retail banks to introduce ‘money lock’ by mid-2024; activated for 78,000 accounts so far

MAJOR retail banks will join the three local banks in introducing the “money lock” feature – which lets customers set aside funds so they cannot be transferred digitally – by mid-2024, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Alvin Tan in Parliament on Tuesday (Apr 2).

The vast majority of retail depositors will be offered the option, he said. But Tan, who is a board member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said that it does not intend to make the feature mandatory for banking institutions.

Providing an update, the minister said the feature launched by DBS, OCBC and UOB in November last year has been activated on more than 78,000 accounts in Singapore, with over S$6.6 billion of savings set aside as at March 2024.

Those aged 50 and above comprise 44 per cent of the customers who have used money lock. Those between 30 and 50 years old make up 41 per cent, while those aged below 30 make up the remaining 15 per cent.

“Local banks will continue to raise awareness and encourage adoption amongst the customer base across all demographic segments,” Tan said.

The money lock feature aims to mitigate losses if a customer’s digital access to bank accounts is compromised.

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Tan added that the government aims to implement the Shared Responsibility Framework (SRF) for phishing scams later this year, following public consultation that ended on Dec 20, 2023.

People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) Desmond Choo asked a supplementary question about other jurisdictions’ approaches to combating such scams.

Tan said authorities are studying how jurisdictions such as the UK and Australia approach scams. Based on UK Finance’s 2023 half-year fraud update, the number of Authorised Push Payment fraud cases have risen 34 per cent (as at 2022) since the implementation of its Contingent Reimbursement Model.

Different approaches fit different jurisdictions, he continued.

The minister also highlighted several findings from the public consultation, noting that some members of the public asked whether the SRF could be expanded to include more scam variants, while others discussed shared responsibility and the determination of payouts, as well as how to encourage consumer responsibility and reduce moral hazard.

Singapore is taking a careful, studied approach to avoid unintended consequences that will exacerbate moral hazard, while still bearing in mind the goal of protecting consumers, Tan said.

Addressing Jurong GRC MP Tan Wu Meng’s question about whether the framework takes a forward-looking approach to consider emerging scam types, such as those that make use of voice cloning, deepfakes and artificial intelligence, Alvin Tan said the SRF is focused on phishing. However, the government is “well aware that malware scams have also contributed to the number of scams that Singaporeans have encountered”.

“As we combat this rapidly evolving scam nature and different typologies, we need to take a suite of approaches towards combating this,” he said, adding that the SRF is one way to ascribe responsibility, using a “waterfall approach”.

The money lock feature, as well as public education and greater awareness, will help to prevent scams, Alvin Tan added.