CONGRESS should pass a proposed law mandating the inclusion of automated teller machine (ATM) fraud as part of the insurance coverage of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect bank depositors.
"We have to include ATM fraud as one of the areas to be covered by the insurance coverage of PDIC. With such insurance, our depositors will be protected and the adverse impact on banks as a result of liabilities brought by ATM fraud will be cushioned," Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe said, as he he backed the proposal of Senator Grace Poe for Congress to pass a law mandating banks to implement a "uniform process" of refunding the monies of depositors victimized by ATM cloning.
This developed as Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte Jr., House Deputy Speaker Giorgidi Aggabao and Batocabe asked various banks to issue refunds without any delay to their clients whose hundreds of millions of pesos worth of deposits have been lost to ATM fraud.
"The ATM cards are under the control of the banks, they should return the monies," Belmonte said.
Aggabao said it is imperative for banks to refund the victims of ATM fraud because it is their major responsibility to protect their deposits.
"Banks cannot escape liability. The receipt of deposit to be kept and withdrawn on demand by the depositor is the generally acknowledged obligation of a bank. Hence, if any money is withdrawn without authority from the depositor, the bank takes the loss- not the depositor,"Aggabao stressed.
As to the proposal of Poe, the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Public Order which conducted a probe on ATM fraud law week, for a uniform process of refund, Aggabao said "is not so consequential."
"I would leave it to the individual banks to determine how they will refund their depositors for the monies lost fraudulently. What matters is that refunds are made," Aggabao explained.
Source Journal Online
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