The principle of zero liability for bank cardholders in Belarus comes into effect on August 5. This provision is contained in the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank dated December 31, 2014 No. 843 "On Amendments and Additions to the Instruction on the Procedure for Operations with Bank Payment Cards," reports BELTA.
The principle of zero liability for bank cardholders in Belarus comes into effect on August 5. This provision is contained in the Resolution of the Board of the National Bank dated December 31, 2014 No. 843 "On Amendments and Additions to the Instruction on the Procedure for Operations with Bank Payment Cards," reports BELTA.
Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Bank, Sergey Dubkov, emphasised: "The principle of zero liability and its qualitative implementation is a tool for competitive struggle."
Thus, deadlines have been set for clients to submit written applications regarding unauthorised withdrawals – 30 days. Banks are allocated 45 days to review these applications and make decisions on fund reimbursement if the transaction was carried out within Belarus, and 90 days if it was carried out outside the country. The determination of whether fraudsters were involved in a particular case falls within the competence of the banks.
According to the National Bank, the deadline for submitting an application is extended if the client had a valid reason – for instance, if the person was ill or was outside the country. If there is no such reason, the bank may refuse to reimburse the client for funds if they are late with their application. Compensation may also be denied to those who violated the card usage procedure, resulting in the loss of funds. That is, if a client discovers money missing from their card, they must write an application and describe the situation in detail. Bank specialists will carefully examine it to rule out the possibility of deception on the part of the cardholder.
The regulator took the first steps towards implementing the principle of limiting the liability of bank cardholders with the adoption of Resolution No. 92 on February 19, 2014. At that time, banks were advised to use the principle of client "presumption of innocence" when considering issues of unauthorised debiting of funds from individuals' bank accounts.
In Belarus, according to the National Bank, the payment card market is actively developing. As of July 1, 2015, there were approximately 12.3 million cards in the country. The share of cashless transactions on this date was 75.4% by number and 30.4% by amount of card transactions. For comparison, at the beginning of 2014, the figures were 68.4% and 21.5% respectively.