New payment obligations. The changes will be felt by customers of all banks

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection established a working group recommendations for payment service providers. The group included representatives of, among others: Office of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and experts from the banking sector.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection points out that electronic payments are one of the… the fastest growing segments of financial servicesand technological progress has changed the financial habits of Poles. In this context, the minimization activities of payment service providers become crucial risk of fraud during online transactions.

The Office notes that many payment service providers has been implementing various solutions to reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions for some time now, treating it as an element of competitive advantage. It’s a good trend, but it does not solve the growing phenomenon using online payment mechanisms to rob consumers – said the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection analyzed the complaints and prepared a list of risk factors

The document prepared by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection contains a list of risk factors, i.e functions offered by payment service providerswhich are most frequently used by fraudsters. It was created based on the analysis of complaints submitted by consumers to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and during the work of the working group, it was supplemented with the risks indicated by industry representatives.

The main part of the document is: a set of 16 recommendationswhich are aimed at limiting the possibility of making fraudulent transactions online. These include recommendations regarding, among others: monitoring unusual transactions, applying transaction limits, using authorization channels, and the ability to quickly report an unauthorized or fraudulent payment transaction by the customer.

Payment service providers should monitor transactions

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection recommends, for example, that the payment service provider monitored transactions made by customers on an ongoing basis. It should, in particular, take into account the average inflows, outflows and funds accumulated on customer accounts, as well as any other circumstances which, in the opinion of the payment service provider, may indicate an increased risk occurrence of fraud.

Another recommendation is cooling period, i.e. a function that delays the execution of a transaction from placing an order in the system by the customer until its execution by the supplier. The payment service provider should apply a cooling period in circumstances where possible indicate fraud.

The office also wants all payment service providers to implement it the employee’s obligation to authenticate himself every time you contact a customer. This security is already known from several banks, but it should be used everywhere.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection also wants to limit some functions, including those related to: consumer loan available from the mobile application or a customer account used from the website.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection also advises payment service providers to offer customers the option use disposable virtual cardsgenerated for the needs of a specific transaction.

According to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, the security of transactions will also increase use of systems based on artificial intelligence or behavioral biometrics.

Full text of the document: Actions to reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions. Recommendations of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection for payment service providers