The Japanese Bankers Association on Tuesday urged its members to hasten measures intended to address a spate of withdrawals using counterfeit cash cards.

The association's board of directors agreed on a package of antidotes, including the introduction of insurance for savings accounts and the adoption of securer customer identification technologies.

But the association postponed a decision on whether to enact a system for banks to compensate losses incurred in such cases.

Yoshifumi Nishikawa, chairman of the association, said that in the meantime, banks may opt to compensate for losses if the withdrawals are deemed criminal and the account holders are not at fault.

While the Financial Services Agency is calling for private-sector guidelines for the compensation of losses from illegal withdrawals, banks remain opposed to a uniform rule.

For now, the latest industry package calls for funding insurance on savings accounts using depositors' premiums.

The association encouraged banks to introduce smart cash cards loaded with integrated-circuit chips that are difficult to forge and to incorporate biometric technologies that confirm authentic cardholders by their fingerprints or the pattern of their palm veins.

It also asked banks to consider lowering the maximum amount of money customers can withdraw from ATMs each day and to educate customers about the need to protect their personal ID numbers.

The banking industry has come under pressure to deal seriously with the issue as depositors reported illegal withdrawals totaling 460 million yen in the April-September period alone.(IHT/Asahi: January 26,2005)