Kochi: The State Bank of Travancore has stopped transfer of funds based on e-mail instructions.
The decision has been taken in the wake of a number of frauds that have occurred recently which is a growing trend, according to the bank’s Human Resource Development General Manager A.N. Krishnan.
“Over the last two months, there have been around 10 such frauds, forcing us to take this action,” he said. In some cases, the amount involved was more than Rs 2 lakh and the bank had recovered the entire money. But it has been decided that this system should be stopped immediately to protect the depositors’ money, he added.
But the Reserve Bank of India has passed no such orders. An RBI official in Mumbai said that such transfers should not be encouraged. The South Indian Bank does not encourage such transfers, the bank’s Executive Director Abraham Thariyan said. There were safe methods for transfer like internet banking which needed to be promoted, he said.
Krishnan said that it had been the practice to transfer funds based on e-mails which used to be supplemented by a written order from the depositor. However, henceforth, the bank would promote only the internet banking mode which had dual security where besides the password given to the customer, when a transfer request was made, another password was sent through SMS and only on confirmation funds were transferred, he added.