BML assures parliament: No negligence in scams

Bank of Maldives (BML) on Monday has assured that there is no negligence on the part of the bank in the scams and syphoning off huge amounts of money from public accounts.

When senior officials were summoned to the parliament’s Committee on State Owned Enterprises on Monday, questions from many members were focused on the rising issue of large amounts of money being syphoned off from the bank accounts of many people in the recent past. The bank's owners faced questions from members about what steps the bank was taking to prevent such incidents and what it was doing to build public confidence in the bank.

Aishath Nooruddin, who was the first to comment on the questions, said the bank was concerned about the rampant number of scams and loss of customer money. Pointing out that scam owners are changing their tactics from time to time, Aishath said that keeping in view the changing trends, the bank is taking necessary steps for the time being.

"It's not just happening in the country. The rest of the world is experiencing the same trend globally. We are taking steps to minimise these by studying the evolving pattern. But what's important is to make people aware," Aishath said.

Giving details, Moosa Nimal, Director, Retail and SME Banking, said that the bank is giving their utmost attention to make people aware about scams. We are trying to create awareness among the people through media, social media and via SMS," he said.

"The key against scams is to educate the public, so we have a lot of work to do to make people aware," Nimal said.

Following Nimal's remarks, the committee members asked the bank to clarify the steps taken to beef up security. Some members also questioned whether such scams were being carried out due to poor security of the bank.

Nimal said the bank's system was not compromised in any scam-related matter. He assured that the security of the bank's system was at the highest level.

"The bank's back end is not compromised at all. The integrity of our system is the same. Such a thing has never happened by penetrating the bank's system. I can assure you that," Nimal said.

He said scammers get access to the bank accounts of people only if their Internet banking username and password is somehow compromised from their side. In many cases, he said, it had happened by gaining access to the email address linked to internet banking.

According to Nimal, scammers also access others' internet banking through unknown links sent to devices, and in other circumstances when phones are taken to repair shops and the personal data on the phone is swiped.

"It happens when information is compromised by the customer. Once again, it's a well-planned affair and things are constantly changing. When something of interest happens in Male, there are scams linked to it," Nimal said.

In the Monday committee meeting, the bank also assured that there was no involvement of its employees in such scams.

Chief Compliance Officer Mariyam Hameed told the committee that none of the scams reported so far had the involvement of any of its employees. She added that as soon as a scam is reported to the bank, it will be ascertained whether an employee was involved or whether the transaction was carried out as per the norms in the bank.

"In a scam-related matter, I can say with 100% confidence that there is no involvement of our staff, in no such reported cases," Mariyam said.

The members also questioned why there were more allegations against BML when other banks were also present in the country. In response Mariyam said that the bank is the largest bank in the country and serves a large number of people. She noted that customers of other banks did face the same situation.

"In the media and other ways, there have been murmurs about the Bank of Maldives because we have more accounts and more customers and more channels," Mariyam said.

Nimal pointed out that scammers access people’s internet banking and transfer the money to other accounts and quickly withdraw it by ATM. As a result, the chances of recovering such lost money are very limited, he said. 

Nimal said that if a complaint of a scam is received, the bank account in which the money was deposited is immediately blocked. When such an account is blocked, if the transferred money is still in the account, it is put on hold and returned to the owner once the case is over, he said.

"Until the case is settled, we have the power to return the money to the sender without the consent of the owner of the account in which the deposit was made. So, once we receive a complaint of a scam, we bring it to the notice of the authorities and once the investigation is over, it can be done," Nimal said.

He assured that the bank takes immediate action as soon as they are informed of a scam and that the bank takes it seriously. Nimal said the call centre and other facilities are taking up such complaints round-the-clock and taking immediate action with special attention.