Banco Santander Chile ordered to reimburse $3.4 million to victim of banking fraud
The Rancagua Court of Appeal confirmed the order to reimburse funds to a customer affected by unauthorised transfers and purchases. The bank failed to prove fraud or gross negligence by the user.
Rancagua Court upholds Santander condemnation over unauthorised transfers
The Rancagua Court of Appeal unanimously confirmed the ruling requiring Banco Santander Chile to reimburse $3,421,340 to a customer who was a victim of fraud through unauthorised transfers and purchases, according to cnnchile.com.
The Second Chamber of the appellate court rejected the appeal presented by the banking entity and upheld the previous decision of the Local Police Court of Graneros, which had dismissed the bank's claim after concluding that fraud or gross negligence on the part of the affected customer had not been established.
The sentence establishes that it is the responsibility of the financial institution to demonstrate the user's responsibility in the questioned transactions. "It is the Bank that must prove that the questioned transactions are exclusively due to fraud or gross negligence by the user, a burden of proof that has not been fulfilled in this case," the ruling states.
The court also questioned the security measures implemented by Santander, indicating that the fraud "could have been mitigated by the Bank if the other available security measures had been operating". The Court added that the entity did not present sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the failure in those mechanisms was not attributable to it.
Among the elements considered by the judges, the bank did not present the customer's historical statement which would have made it possible to analyse whether the transactions were irregular in comparison with their usual behaviour. It also failed to prove that it had issued alerts regarding unknown transactions carried out in a short period, nor did it provide new evidence in the second instance establishing gross negligence on the part of the user.
Source: Google News CL — Crime