In light of the growing number of financial scams, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has announced an additional measure that will be empower potential victims to avert financial scams.

Dubbed as a “kill switch”, it is a feature that will allow potential victims to instantly freeze their accounts including their ATM cards should they encounter suspicious activities on their accounts. This puts an instant stop to any further losses if a potential financial scam is taking place.

In fact, some banks have already announced their own “kill switch” feature in recent months shortly after Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) issued a directive to financial institutions on security measures to safeguard against financial scams. OCBC, Maybank, as well as CIMB have all announced their own version of a “kill switch” that comprehensively pauses all functions of a user’s bank account by disabling features such as fund transfers, cash withdrawals, bill payments, debit and credit card transactions, and online transactions.

That said, different banking institutions have different levels of features disabling, so this announcement by the Prime Minister may include additional outlines or instructions on what must be included in the “kill switch” that all banks must abide by.

After all, with financial scams running more rampant than ever, costing RM850 million in losses in 2022 alone, this feature at least allows users to take immediate action before contacting the bank to take further action.

• TAGS:
• Bank Negara Malaysia
• CIMB
• Financial Scams
• Kill Switch
• Maybank