Tag: SBP

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday issued instruction to banks for protection of customers’ identity while making communication through call centers.

The SBP said that to ensure confidentiality of consumers’ data, banks will put in place adequate controls at their call centers including continuous CCTV vigilance, physical entry and exit checks, restriction on portable devices like cell phones, controlled accessibility to printers and emails.

Banks will allow their call center staff access to customers’ data on a ‘Need-to-Know’ basis only i.e. restricted only to the customers contacting the call center.

Proper logs of access to customer’s information will be maintained and monitored to detect unauthorized access.  Moreover, banks will ensure masking of the Credit or Debit card numbers so that the call agents could only view the last four digits of the cards.

SBP has also instructed banks to deploy sufficient call center resources to ensure a satisfactory customer experience. For this, the banks will have adequate IT controls and contingency and disaster recovery set-ups for their call centers.

All inbound and outbound calls at the call centers will be recorded and the record will be retained at least for one year.  Banks will also ensure that their call centers are adequately staffed with proper trainings, particularly on digital fraud management, relevant policies and initiatives of banks and query and complaint handling.

To improve call center management, banks will have proper policy and oversight mechanisms in place and performance will be regularly monitored. The banks will put in place key performance indicators for reviewing performance of call centers with appropriate benchmarks as per international best practices. Banks will also have a comprehensive policy and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on call center management duly approved by their Board of Directors and CEO.

The SBP said that call centers are rapidly becoming customers’ top choice to communicate with their Banks. Over time, the use of call centers by customers to seek information, guidance and redressal of complaints from their banks has increased significantly.

On the other hand, the technological advancements are helping the banks to provide self-banking solutions through call centers. The growing importance of call centers in bank-customer relationship makes it imperative for the banks to efficiently manage their call centers for enhanced customer experience. Recently, SBP conducted a thematic review of the call center management at banks.  In the light of findings of the review, it has issued today regulatory instructions to banks on call center management.

To bring ease in lodging complaints, all the banks are encouraged to deploy toll-free numbers for their call centers besides making sure that call center numbers are displayed prominently on banks’ premises and websites.

Banks are also required to take measures to reduce the call wait time i.e. the time before connecting to an agent, as much as possible to avoid inconvenience to the customers.

Further, banks will also ensure that call agents do not refuse to lodge complaint and a proper complaint number is provided to all the complainants.

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday directed banks to observe extended banking hours to facilitate collection of duty and taxes.

The SBP said that to facilitate the collection of government receipts/ duties / taxes, it has been decided that the field officers of SBP Banking Services Corporation (SBP-BSC) and authorized branches of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) will observe extended banking hours till 6:00 PM on March 31, 2021 (Wednesday). For which purpose a special clearing has been arranged at 5:00 P.M. on the same day by the NIFT. 

All banks are, therefore, advised to keep their concerned branches open on March 31, 2021 (Wednesday) till such time that is necessary to facilitate the special clearing for Government transactions by the NIFT.

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday signed an agreement with Controller General of Accounts Pakistan (CGAP) for digitizing payments of the federal government.

A SBP statements said that through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the federal government payment would be digitized through RAAST

– Pakistan’s First Instant Payment System, launched in January 2021 by SBP.

Raast is a flagship initiative of SBP, which provides simple, fast, low-cost, interoperable and secure electronic payment platform for instant processing of high volume retail payments. Raast also has the ability to make payments to multiple beneficiaries at a time in order to cater high volume government payments like salaries, pension and social security payments.

In the pilot phase, the salaries and pensions of a group of Federal Government employees will be paid through Raast. The payroll and pension-roll data will be shared from CGA system to SBP’s Raast through a highly secured interface, and payments to the beneficiaries’ accounts will be made instantly after validating the beneficiaries’ detail.

To ensure that payments are only credited in the intended beneficiary’s account, Raast verifies the beneficiaries’ details with their banks on real time basis before crediting the payment in beneficiary’s account.

After the pilot run, the facility will be rolled out to cover all the salaries, pension as well as supplier payments of the federal and provincial governments. SBP is also working to use the powerful capacities of Raast to include payments of social security nets such as the Ehsas Program, BISP and other government entities.

ISLAMABAD: The officials of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to be given immunity against any legal suit and prosecution for any act of commission or omission done in exercise of any powers.

According to proposed amendments to the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956 issued by the finance ministry on Thursday, “No suit, prosecution or any other legal proceeding including for damages shall lie against the SBP, board of directors of member thereof, governor, deputy governors, member of any board committee and monetary policy committee, officers and employees of the central bank for any act of commission or omission done in exercise or performance of any functions, power or duty conferred or imposed by or under this Act upon such persons or any rules and regulations made thereunder or any legislation administered by the SBP unless such act is done in bad faith and with mala fide intent.”

It is further proposed the governor, deputy governors, directors, members of any board committee and monetary policy committee, officers and employees of the bank shall not be liable in their personal capacity for any act of commission or omission done in their official capacity in good faith and in case of any such proceedings as mentioned in sub-section (1), they shall be indemnified by the bank which shall bear all the expenses thereof, till final decision of the case.

Another immunity proposed to SBP officials, which stated: :”No action, inquiry, investigation or proceedings shall be taken by National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) or provincial investigation agency, bureau, authority or institution by whatever name called without prior consent of the board of directors of the SBP.”

Whereas, the present law says: “Every (person in service) of the bank shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of Section of the Pakistan Penal Code.”

The proposed amendments also suggested increasing the tenure of SBP governor to five years from existing three years.