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Consumer rights advocates want banks to fast-track account name matching to help stave off an increasing number of scams.
An estimated $200m is lost each year by Kiwis to scams, with the Banking Ombudsman's latest report putting complaints about scams up 43 percent on the year before. Nearly a third of complaints that ended up being formally investigated were about scams, and the average amount lost was $57,000. The Ombudsman is currently investigating a number of complaints about the high-profile Citibank term deposit scam.
Ten days ago the New Zealand Banking Association said the industry was embarking on a national cross-sector approach to scams - but it declined to speak in depth to Nine to Noon about them.
One of the initiatives it supported was 'confirmation of payee' account name checking services - something Consumer NZ's CEO Jon Duffy says should be in place now.
Kathryn speaks to him about that, along with Dr Claire Matthews, who's an associate professor at Massey University's Business School and an expert in banking and David Cunningham, CEO of investment company Squirrel but formerly CEO of the Cooperative Bank.
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