Ukraine plans to require banks to reimburse customers for money stolen by fraudsters
28 May 10:46
Bill No. 15274 has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada, proposing to significantly strengthen the protection of financial services consumers who have fallen victim to online fraudsters. Banks and other financial institutions may be required to immediately refund customers the funds that scammers have stolen from their accounts or cards. This was reported by Delo.ua, as relayed by "Komersant Ukrainian".
The main concept of the document is that it is the financial institution that must prove the user’s guilt in the leak of personal data, rather than the customer having to prove their innocence. At the same time, analysts note that since this draft law was developed by an individual lawmaker rather than the Cabinet of Ministers or a relevant committee, the chances of its adoption by parliament are currently low.
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What the new rules entail for banks
The bill proposes a clear and non-negotiable set of procedures for the financial sector in the event of unauthorized access to citizens’ accounts.
Key provisions of the initiative:
- Immediate reimbursement: the bank will be required to immediately compensate the customer for the full amount of losses if the payment transaction was unauthorized or incorrectly executed.
- Notification from the customer: A mandatory condition for receiving compensation is that the cardholder must immediately contact the bank to state that they did not make or authorize the payment.
- Restoration of account balance: The financial institution must fully restore the account balance to the state it was in immediately prior to the fraudulent transaction.
- Limits of liability: The customer bears no financial liability if the theft of funds occurred without the physical presentation of the payment card or without electronic authentication.
The bank may penalize the customer or deny a refund only if it proves in court that the user, through their actions or inaction, intentionally facilitated the disclosure of PIN codes, passwords, or one-time verification codes to third parties. The implementation of these regulations will not require additional expenditures from the state budget.
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