International transactions blocked, ATM withdrawal limit reduced as part of bank measure vs. fraud

Dubai: Following recent incidents of debit card fraud, Standard Chartered Bank has revealed that it has implemented a measure to counter the illegal activity and protect customers from further damage.

The bank said that it has blocked international transactions including ATM withdrawals, while local daily withdrawal limit has been reduced to Dh3,000.

Standard Chartered Bank has also established a cash delivery process across all major countries for those oversees customers who are in need of urgent cash.

The bank said that it has configured all 130 of its ATMs in the UAE to display messages alerting customers of the reported fraudulent activity and requesting they change their PIN.

Similar alerts are also in place through telephone banking and on the Standard Chartered Bank UAE website.

"Standard Chartered Bank customers and their needs continue to be a top priority for the bank and all possible measures/actions that can be taken at this point in time have been put in place and will continue to be reviewed to ensure customers have maximum support," the banks said in a statement.

"Standard Chartered Bank is working in close coordination with the Central Bank to determine the exact cause of this situation in order to limit further inconvenience to all our customers," the statement added.

The previous week, Standard Chartered Bank sent SMS messages to its entire database of customers and a dedicated task force was established to deal with customer concerns.

The bank also said that it reimbursed money lost in the fraudulent activity within a maximum period of 48 hours.