Standard Chartered rolls out digital scam insurance, higher interest rates for senior savings account

SINGAPORE: Standard Chartered Bank announced on Monday (Mar 17) a revamp of its MyWay savings account to include a digital scam insurance policy and higher interest rates.

The MyWay savings account is available for those aged 55 and above.

The Digital Scam Protection Insurance, underwritten by MSIG, will protect funds of up to S$50,000 (US$37,474) from unauthorised electronic money transfers arising from phishing and malware scams.

"For example, if the account holder was tricked into downloading malware apps due to a phishing email and it resulted in stolen funds, the insurance would cover," said MSIG in response to CNA's queries.

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"The policy essentially covers losses that occur unintentionally and without the account holder's authorisation."

Authorised payment scams, including love scams, investment scams and impersonation scams, are excluded.

For instance, if the account holder willingly transfers money to a scammer on the promise of a financial gain, the insurance would not cover the loss, even if the account holder later realises that they were "deceitfully manipulated".

MSIG will also “cover any reasonable and necessary costs” incurred by account holders if they take legal action against the scammers, based on a frequently-asked-questions list on the website.

As part of its coverage, customers are required to use and maintain their personal and smart home devices as recommended by the manufacturer or supplier.

They are also supposed to update the operating systems of their devices within 14 days after a security patch is issued and use appropriate security measures like anti-malware solutions, among others.

Another condition for making a claim requires customers to have taken “all reasonable and necessary measures to minimise the duration and effect” of an insured event.

In response to CNA’s query, Standard Chartered said an example of that includes customers “promptly reporting the incident to the bank and filing police report within the stipulated timeframe ... of 7 days from discovery date”. 

“This allows the bank and account holder to minimise the risk of effect of an insured event,” it said.

Noting that seniors may be more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated digital scams, Mr Usman Khalid, the bank’s global and Singapore head for deposits, mortgages and payments, said the revamped savings account hopes to provide customers with “peace of mind alongside financial growth”.

The digital scam insurance will be free for the first year. This makes MyWay the first retail savings product in Singapore to include a complimentary digital scam insurance, the bank said.

When asked about the insurance premium after the first year, Standard Chartered referred CNA to an earlier statement, saying it "continuously assess(es) the needs of (its) customers and may extend or enhance coverage" based on its impact and reception.

MyWay account holders are able to access existing anti-scam features such as kill switch and “money lock” as additional protection. Activating the latter will not impact the applicable tiered interest rates.

Mr Khalid said the bank will explore expanding the scam insurance to other savings products in future.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered has revised its tiered interest rates for balances beyond the first S$50,000 for MyWay account holders.

The interest rate for the first S$50,000 of account balances remains at 0.05 per cent per annum.

But from Mar 17, customers will earn 0.5 per cent a year for the next S$200,000 in their accounts and 1 per cent for the next S$1.25 million. The maximum interest rate of 3 per cent applies for the next S$3.5 million.

This brings the maximum effective interest rate for those with account balances of S$5 million to 2.37 per cent a year, up from 0.26 per cent.

The bank is also giving a promotional bonus interest rate of 0.5 per cent for 3 months on account holders' incremental average daily balance if they deposit fresh funds of at least S$200,000.