Consumer Protection Towards Bank Deposit in Indonesia (Study on the Loss of Customer’s Funds in Maybank)
Abstract
In 2020 a customer of a renowned private bank reported that her deposit is
missing from her accounts, there are two accounts which were made in 2014 and
2016. But she started to save money in 2015. By the time this case reported, her
savings reached approximately 22,879 billion IDR. In November 2020, the bank
posted a press statement on their website stating that the bank has reported and
processed the complaint which was alleged to be a crime. And The Criminal
Investigation Department established the Head of the branch office as a suspect.
The investigation found out that the suspect has an account for collecting the
customer’s money which he used for his personal needs. Later that year, the
spokesperson of the bank clarified that they are willing to compensate the customer
but only with 16,8 billion IDR, but that is not equal to the amount of money the
customer has lost. This research rises problems such as: How is the responsibility
of bank towards the loss suffered by the depositing customers? and how are the
legal protections given to the depositing customers who lost their money? In this
normative research, conceptual approach will be used by analyzing the law and the
application of it, this writing will use the study of literature and documents, where
the materials will be collected by studying books, journals, laws and regulations
related to the banking and financial consumer protection. The result shows that the
bank is responsible for the injury it’s caused to its customers even when the actions
is committed by its employee, this transfer of responsibility is given through the
vicarious liability principle, therefore, the bank has the obligation to recompense
the victim. As for the legal protections, the law has provided adequate protections
for bank’s customers, it's just that due to the lack of enforcement those protections
do not seem to be able to protect the customers properly. Consequently, banks who
are responsible for their employees should improve their internal supervision and
security so the actions of their employees wouldn’t harm their customers. And the
protection to the customers who lost their money, should be enforceable to the
responsible parties, this way the customer can have their possessions back.
Collections
- Law [2335]