{
  "id": 13756231,
  "title": "‘Banks should shoulder more losses from digital scams’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/11/banks-should-shoulder-more-losses-from-digital-scams",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-11T16:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Philippine Star Business",
    "slug": "philippine-star-business",
    "url": "https://www.philstar.com/business/2026/10/12/2562484/banks-should-shoulder-more-losses-digital-scams"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Global management consulting firm Arthur D. Little (ADL) asserts that banks and financial institutions ought to assume greater accountability for losses stemming from digital scams caused by inadequate control measures. Wendell Tan, a principal at ADL’s Financial Services Practice, emphasized the importance of heightened consumer protection as fraud, scams, and mule accounts continue to erode confidence in digital financial services. According to Tan, institutions must bear more responsibility when losses result from inadequate transaction monitoring, weak authentication, insufficient fraud warnings, or delayed responses to reported suspicious activity. The Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act, or Republic Act 12010, has already bolstered the liability of banks and other financial entities by potentially obligating them to reimburse funds when losses arise from insufficient risk management systems or insufficient due diligence. However, Tan cautioned that liability should not automatically transfer to victims, as individual circumstances may vary, and customers also bear certain responsibilities. A more equitable approach, Tan argued, would allocate responsibility based on which party could have reasonably prevented the loss, encompassing banks, electronic wallets, telecommunications companies, digital platforms, regulators, and law enforcement agencies. To bolster consumer trust, Tan suggested that financial institutions should implement stronger real-time monitoring of suspicious activity and enhance systems for identifying unusual transactions and mule accounts. Moreover, banks and other providers should furnish clearer payment-related warnings and establish faster procedures for freezing and recovering funds across institutions. Tan also underscored the significance of swift, transparent, and time-bound dispute resolution processes. In addition to measures implemented by individual institutions, ADL proposed the establishment of a broader \"trust layer\" to facilitate the continued growth of digital finance. This trust layer should encompass shared fraud intelligence among institutions, reinforced controls against mule accounts, real-time protocols for freezing funds, uniform standards for handling disputes, and more robust cybersecurity systems. Tan stressed that without this trust layer, expanded connectivity could merely enable risk to propagate more rapidly. He advocated for the development of such protections concurrently with efforts to enhance digital access and connectivity, rather than introducing them only after a greater number of Filipinos have adopted online financial services. Tan stressed that the objective is not merely to fortify technical linkages but to cultivate a financial infrastructure that Filipinos and businesses can trust and utilize confidently.",
  "summary": "Banks and other financial institutions should bear greater responsibility for losses from digital scams when these stem from weaknesses in their own controls, according to global management consulting firm Arthur D. Little (ADL).",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}