Money in account suddenly "evaporated": Is there a loophole in the banking system?

In recent days, public opinion has been stirred up by the fact that tens of billions of dong have been "evaporated" from some accounts at MSB bank, and the incident where a customer using an Eximbank credit card was charged interest from more than 8.5 million dong to more than 8.8 billion dong after 11 years. So how responsible will the bank be? Who will pay for these customers? How will the victims of the incident be protected? What is the responsibility of the parties involved?

Not only regular customers complain about losing money "unjustly", but even financial and banking experts sometimes "get caught" in fraud traps and their bank accounts "disappear".

Bank staff made a mistake, should the bank take responsibility?

Economist, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu shared: "I am a finance and banking expert and often go to forums to advise people to be careful and protect their bank account information. However, I myself have lost money to a group of scammers."

Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu said that the act of fraud to lose money in bank accounts is happening more and more with the amount of money getting bigger and bigger. According to Mr. Hieu, there are 2 main reasons leading to this situation: First, technology crime is growing. Second, in difficult economic times, the number of crimes is also increasing.

Regarding the case of a large amount of money “evaporating” from an account at MSB, Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu assessed that the fact that customers lost money shows that there are loopholes in the banking system. These loopholes may come from the bank’s processes, the implementation of internal regulations and procedures, or the business ethics of bank staff...

“If a bank officer makes a mistake, the bank must take responsibility. For example, at an American bank, if a depositor loses money due to a bank officer's mistake, the bank is immediately responsible for returning the money to the customer. And within just 3 days, the bank has a plan to deal with the customer," said Mr. Hieu.

Therefore, in the incident at MSB, this expert believes that whether the police determine it is a case of fraud to appropriate customer assets or embezzlement to appropriate bank assets, the bank must still be responsible to depositors.

Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu commented: The State Bank should review the business processes of commercial banks. "The management agency needs to have solutions to enhance the rights of depositors, thereby strengthening public confidence in the banking system," Mr. Hieu emphasized.

"Customers must absolutely keep transaction information confidential.

According to lawyer Truong Thanh Duc - Director of ANVI Law Firm, in recent cases of customers losing money related to banks, the majority are the fault of the bank.

Regarding the recent cases of money loss at MSB bank, we must first wait for the investigation results from the police agency. We need to verify and clarify the cause, however, the bank is also responsible, lawyer Duc commented.

Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc analyzed: If all banks follow the correct procedures, each department also follows the standards, then customers can completely feel secure when making transactions in all forms. But in reality, there have been many incidents that have occurred recently, showing that the employees themselves have intentionally violated the rules, with the aim of defrauding and appropriating money from the bank.

Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc also said that there are also some cases where customers give money to people who are not part of the bank's staff (have quit) or to the wrong department and not following the correct procedures, then when money is lost, it will be the customer's fault.

"Customers must absolutely keep transaction information confidential. Do not give it to anyone else, including bank employees, and carefully check the transaction content before signing documents... In particular, do not be subjective, easygoing, and do not make cross-border transactions with bank employees. On the bank's side, employees must comply with all principles and safety requirements in transactions with customers. Banks need to ensure safe transaction processes and have strict monitoring measures to ensure employee compliance," said Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc.

Therefore, Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc recommends: "With all transactions with banks, regardless of the form, customers should be careful to go to the transaction directly and confirm that it is a bank employee from that department or unit; carefully check information about the amount, date, interest rate,... to minimize unfortunate errors."

If a customer unfortunately falls into a situation of losing money or being suspected of being scammed, first of all, they need to calmly gather all documents, vouchers, and transaction documents with the bank and find a reputable legal service provider to carry out the procedure of inviting a lawyer to participate in protecting their legal rights and interests.