Date: For Parliament Sitting on 7 November 2023
Name and Constituency of Member of Parliament
Ms Sylvia Lim, MP, Aljunied GRC
Question:
To
ask the Prime Minister (a) which retail banks in Singapore have phased
out hardware tokens for customers; and (b) whether the Monetary
Authority of Singapore will mandate that this option be available to
customers to enhance the security of online banking.
Answer by Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and Chairman of MAS:
1. Most major retail
banks in Singapore already offer hardware tokens for customers. These
include the three local banks, DBS, OCBC, and UOB, as well as foreign
banks like Maybank and HSBC. Although these banks do not provide
hardware tokens by default, bank customers can request for a hardware
token if it better meets their needs. There is therefore no need for MAS
to mandate that hardware tokens be made available to bank customers as
an option.
2. Hardware tokens are not
a panacea. While hardware tokens that generate one-time passwords
(OTPs) are resistant to malware-enabled scams, they are still
susceptible to phishing tactics deployed by scammers. There have been
many instances where victims were tricked into sharing the OTPs
generated by their hardware tokens with scammers who in turn used them
to perform fraudulent transactions.
3. MAS has been working
closely with the industry to continuously strengthen the security of
online banking. MAS has also asked the banks to assess and implement
customer authentication mechanisms that are more resistant to both
phishing and malware attacks.
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