Bank Negara Malaysia has instructed all licensed banks to adopt high standards of security, particularly on the internet and mobile banking services in the wake of rising fraud activities by unscrupulous entities.
The Central Bank said this will include routine security reviews and advisories issued to financial institutions to enhance existing controls and ensure adequate protection against the latest threats while maintaining efficient services for customers.
Fraud risk is constantly evolving, as scammers continue to devise more sophisticated means of defrauding the public. This includes new approaches of tricking bank account holders into revealing their banking details or installing malware on their devices. The financial industry and authorities, therefore, continue to remain vigilant against new modus operandi it added.
BNM has been collaborating with Polis Diraja Malaysia, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, and the financial industry to coordinate efforts in combating financial fraud and scams, and to create greater public awareness of new fraud tactics. In addition to ensuring more effective preventive measures by financial institutions against new modus operandi, these efforts will also support the recovery of embezzled funds as well as timely and effective investigations by the relevant law enforcement agencies.
The public is advised to be extra vigilant in safeguarding their personal information and downloading files or applications from unverified sources onto mobile devices.
Appropriate supervisory and enforcement actions will also be taken by BNM in cases where banks have not taken adequate steps to protect their customers or failed to comply with the relevant regulations.
