Singapore Allows More Time to Implement E-payment Protection Rules

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will give banks and credit card issuers more time to adopt the E-Payments User Protection Guidelines. The Guidelines aim to set standards in the following areas:

• Set out duties of financial institutions and users for secure e-payment transactions.
• Simplify error resolution processes when a user sends money to the wrong recipient.
• Apportion liability between financial institutions and users for unauthorised transactions.

The Guidelines were first issued in September 2018 and were originally scheduled to come into effect on 31 January 2019. The banks have requested MAS for more time to implement the Guidelines, owing to the scale and complexity of system changes needed to implement the transaction notification standards for all products and customers as set out in the Guidelines. MAS has agreed to adjust the effective start date to 30 June 2019. After the Guidelines come into force, a more comprehensive notification alert process and framework for unauthorised transactions will be in place.