The Bank of Ghana has issued a new directive to financial institutions on how to handle customers’ complaints of captured ATM cards by an Automated teller Machine.
According to the Bank of Ghana, the new directive will seek to “address the perennial complaints that emanate from the capture of Payment Cards at Automated Teller Machines of Regulated Financial Institutions”.
The objectives of this Directive are therefore to:
(a) Provide for standard procedures in retrieving Payment Cards captured by Automated Teller Machines and
(b) Prescribe conditions for releasing, transporting or destroying Payment Cards captured by Automated Teller Machines.”
Details of Directive on Captured ATM cards
In line with the objective, and pursuant to Section 92 of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), financial institutions must within 24 hours of receiving a complaint from a customer regarding the capture of a payment card by an ATM, take steps to identify the cardholder and further work expeditiously to return the card to the customer.
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Lodging a captured card complaint
The directive further states that a cardholder whose card has been captured by the ATM must provide all relevant information to the issuer or acquirer to assist in identification. The information to be presented, must take the form of one or more of the following;
(a) valid national identification card;
(b) valid driver’s license;
(c) Valid Passport;
(d) valid SSNIT ID or;
(e) valid voter identification card.
Other procedures to follow include:
a) An acquirer or issuer shall inform a Card Holder of the timelines and procedures for reclaiming a captured card.
b) Where an acquirer is unable to release a captured card to a Card Holder due to the acquirer’s inability to authenticate the Card Holder, the acquirer shall notify the Card Holder of its decision to transmit the card to the issuer.
Reasons for a captured card by an ATM
Bank of Ghana in its publication on the “Treatment of Captured Payment Cards in Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) Directive: for Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs),” on June 29, outlined the reasons why a payment card may be captured by an ATM. The reasons are as follows:
a) “A wrong Personal Identification Number (PIN) is entered more than the permitted number of times by a customer during an Automated Teller Machine transaction;
b) There is a technical issue including but not limited to power outage, network challenge and malfunction of the Automated Teller Machine;
c) A Payment Card is forgotten in an Automated Teller Machine card reader after an Automated Teller Machine transaction;
d) A session has been timed out during an Automated Teller Machine transaction;
e) A Payment Card has been flagged as “Card Capture”, “Stolen Card”, “Lost Card” or any other status that has been parameterised by an issuer for which a Payment Card may be captured;
f) An expired or damaged card is used on an Automated Teller Machine; and.
g) A card that appears to be fraudulent including plain cards, cardboard cards etc.”
