Customers who discovered money missing from their bank accounts and recently went public to voice their concerns have received support from the Bank of Uganda.
The regulator claims that this forces the accountable financial institution to take prompt action to resolve the issue.
Although he believes that some customers’ responses are not in the best interests of the banks, Jonah Waiswa, head of public education at BOU, says that despite the growing number of complaints, the regulator is pleased that the public is learning about their rights and is not remaining silent.
This occurs in the context of a recent public uproar concerning the security of client money within the banking sector, following significant events involving Equity Bank Uganda and Centenary Bank.
In the Equity incident, a guy is shown filming himself furiously criticizing the banking staff for not responding to him when he discovered that 10 million shillings had disappeared from his account.
In a statement, the bank stated that they had opened an investigation into the problem and that the results would guide any steps made to improve the situation for the customer.
At Centenary, the victim is seen being comforted by bank employees as she sobs after realizing that over 113 million shillings had disappeared from her account.
Later, Centenary released a statement promising to investigate the whereabouts of the funds. After a day, it was found that a staff member had collaborated with a fraudster, manipulating the PIN to transfer the money, which they then took out from several bank agents.
According to Waiswa, who works with the BOU team on a nationwide financial literacy initiative called “BOU Town Hall Meetings,” the majority of fraud occurs when a perpetrator obtains access to a victim’s personal information, particularly for individuals whose accounts are linked to their cell phone numbers.
He contends that until the crime is reported, even the banks are sometimes unaware that it is occurring.
As a result, he claims, the bank is able to instantly stop all activity on the impacted account until the owner resolves the issue.
Before even going to the police to report the loss of their belongings, he exhorts his customers who lose their cell phones or any other personal information to report it right away to their banks.
