UCPB offers ATM insurance coverage

THE United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) has started offering insurance coverage for automated teller machine (ATM) transactions to its depositors amid an industry-wide push to boost cybersecurity.

In a statement, the state-run bank said customers can avail of insurance protection involving robbery under ATM Protect, a service offered by its bancassurance arm UCPB General Insurance Co., Inc.

The service provides an insurance cover against robbery “during or after an over-the-counter or ATM withdrawal,” as well as from card skimming and transactions made via stolen mobile phone banking devices.

ATM Protect collects P15 as monthly premium and covers up to three incidents of robbery, as well as one skimming case per policy year. Costs for replacing government-issued identification cards, getting a new ATM card, hospital bills, death, and emergency medical assistance, among others.

UCPB has deactivated all magnetic stripe cards effective Aug. 1 in favor of the microchip-embedded ones which are deemed more secure versus identity theft and skimming.

Separately, global firm Mastercard rolled out its Early Detection System service for banks, which provides advanced data which flags cards and accounts with a “heightened risk” of being used for fraud.

“The system identifies everything from active criminal trading of account data, to identification of cards being tested prior to being used for fraud, to account data that appears at-risk but without sufficient evidence to declare an Account Data Compromise event,” the financial services firm said in a separate statement.

Mastercard’s service provides alerts within a six to 18-month lead time ahead of traditional alerts, as they employ network insights, predictive systems, as well as internal and external data to trace transaction patterns.

Other banks have recently rolled out additional layers of security for bank clients amid rising cybersecurity threats.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor A. Espenilla, Jr. has identified rising cybersecurity threats as a major concern, with the steady rise in cases of “card not present” fraud as more transactions shift to electronic platforms. — Melissa Luz T. Lopez