The Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA) has welcomed the Australian Banking Association’s (ABA) campaign encouraging individuals and businesses to register for PayID in an effort to protect against sophisticated financial scams.
PayID is the secure method of digital transactions that links a BSB and account number to a registered phone, email, or ABN.
Leanne Vale, Director of Financial Crimes and Cyber Resilience at COBA, said an increased take-up of PayID is important to combat rising financial scams, with the ACCC recently reporting Australians lost a record amount of more than $2 billion to scams in 2021.
“PayID presents the person making the payment with a confirmation screen. As this step includes the intended PayID name, this allows them to check the destination is as intended before confirming the payment.” Vale said.
“COBA members were some of the first banks in Australia to introduce the New Payments Platform (NPP) and PayID for their customers, and we will continue to promote activities that keep people safe from financial crime.
“Any customer-owned banking customers who are yet to register a PayID should contact their bank to find out more and set this function up for even safer digital transactions – it’s free and very simple to use.”
COBA will be sharing the ABA’s integrated campaign materials that educate consumers on how using PayID can help to avoid scams and ensure payments go where they are intended.
“This is a strong message to scammers from both the ABA and COBA that Australian banks will continue to invest in digital security and educate the public on how they can protect themselves and their finances from fraud.” Vale said.
Already, 17 per cent of all real time payments are now made using PayID and the ABA’s campaign will track both increased PayID registrations and growth in payments made to a PayID instead of a BSB and account number.
For further information, please contact media@coba.asn.au.