Westpac boss pushes back on scam reimbursement

King, who chairs the Australian Banking Association, argued it made more sense to encourage customers to make payments using a PayID – a relatively new payment method that allows the payer to see who they are paying before sending the money.

“We could upgrade the old system but eventually, it won’t be around. We are better off to encourage customers to use PayID,” he said.

Westpac said it had blocked more than $215 million being lost to scammers this year, though investment scams were a big challenge, accounting for 55 per cent of all scam-related customer losses last month.

In most cases, people who are tricked into transferring money to a scammer are far less likely to be reimbursed than victims of fraud, which includes those who have their account details compromised.

King was also fairly upbeat on the economy, saying conditions were still “very strong,” and tipping a bounceback in spending this month after figures on Monday showed a slowdown in retail sales. “I think Christmas will be good, I think we might have a bit of a hangover after Christmas,” King said.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank had a win in the Federal Court, which dismissed a case from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission alleging misleading or deceptive conduct. The regulator launched the action last year after the bank overcharged almost 1 million people (CBA has already paid compensation).

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