WASHINGTON — A group of Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee have asked Early Warning Services — which operates the payment platform Zelle and is co-owned by seven large banks — to clarify its
Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown of Ohio, along with Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, said that they "remain concerned" about Zelle's policies related to scams, particularly impostor scams, in which someone impersonates a representative of a financial institution, a business, a utility or a government entity to trick a customer into sending money.
It's unclear, based on Zelle's website, whether reimbursing customers who are victims of these scams is Zelle's policy, the lawmakers said. According to the lawmakers' letter, Zelle says on its website that if customers authorize the payment, they might not get their money back, but that "qualifying" impostor scams might be eligible for reimbursement.
"Since it appears that Zelle has not shared any specific information about its reimbursement policy, customers may not know that they can be reimbursed and, thinking they may not get any help, may not report these scams," the lawmakers said in the letter, which they sent Thursday. "Zelle should clarify whether all participating banks and credit unions are required to reimburse customers who are victims of 'qualifying' impostor scams and make that policy public."
It' is also "unnecessarily" difficult to report fraud and scams to Zelle, the lawmakers said.
The letter follows a
About a year ago, Senate Democrats led by Reed asked bank regulators to
Separately, JPMorgan Chase disclosed a government inquiry related to Zelle in the bank's 10-K filing on Friday. The bank said that it is "responding to inquiries from civil government authorities regarding the handling of disputes related to transfers of funds through the Zelle Network."
