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The chief executive officer of the National Australia Bank has called on all of Australia to help tackle SMS-based financial scams.
Ross McEwan was appearing before the House of Representatives standing committee on economics and was questioned by Labor MP Jerome Laxale – who asked similar questions of the ANZ chief earlier in the hearing.
McEwan was initially asked why the actions banks are taking now to fight SMS scams have taken so long, given that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) report in 2009 was noting, even then, an uptick in the number of scams targeting Australians.
The NAB boss admitted he was unaware of the report but went on to explain that such scams have increased dramatically in the last 12 months.
The biggest issue, McEwan said, was that this was a whole-of-nation problem. For all that banks can help – and he listed the work that NAB is doing to stop scams, including making the decision to remove links wholesale from its own official messaging – education of consumers has a long way to go.
“We can’t do this alone” was a common refrain.
Like ANZ earlier, McEwan said that social media operators and telcos have a huge role to play, as does the government.
“What we need is a big Australia moment,” McEwan said.
Earlier in the day, ANZ boss Shayne Elliott was similarly questioned, with Laxale pointing out regulations covering refunding scam losses in the UK.
“If I went ahead and wrote a similar code and put it on your desk next week, would you sign up to a voluntary code to refund some of your customers in certain circumstances?” Laxale asked.
Elliott replied that he would not sign up, with a forthright “no”, explaining that banks are merely the endpoint of scams.
“We’ve got to do a better job on education,” Elliott said.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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