The ombudsman for banking services has warned internet banking clients to make sure they enter the right account numbers for beneficiaries before making payments.
This is after a dissatisfied online banking customer complained that money was wrongly paid to a beneficiary after he had entered eight digits instead of nine for an account number.
”The system merely added a 0 in place of the missing number. The complainant said the bank was responsible since it did not verify the account number against the beneficiary’s name, which is a mandatory field for internet banking,” said ombudsman Neville Melville.
He however determined that the bank could not be held liable in this case.
”Banks cannot be expected to cross-reference names and numbers as they would have to access each other’s client records. Further, the name entered may not be an exact match to the name on record, as many companies use a ‘trading as’ identity,” Melville said.
”If payments were rejected because account holder details did not tally completely, the majority of transfers would fail.”
Banks have undertaken to include on their electronic banking pages a warning that only the account number will be used for the transfer. This will complement the disclaimer already contained in the terms and conditions link on the institutions’ websites.
”The message is clear,” said Melville.
”Double check the account number before parting with that hard-earned money.” – Sapa