ING Bank Romania has introduced a verification procedure requiring corporate clients to call back the bank, which then calls back the client, before any payment can be released, the bank announced. The measure, branded «Verifică apelul ING / Check the call from ING», is available inside the ING Business Pro application and is designed to counter impersonation of banks, authorities and other trusted institutions.
Under the new procedure, a company director who initiates a transfer receives an instruction to dial a number printed on the screen. The bank's operator asks for the account holder's mother's maiden name, the name of the first employee hired and the colour of the company's first delivery van, then hangs up. A second call follows, placed by the bank, in which the director must repeat the phrase shown on the screen while holding the phone at an angle the bank describes as «standard».
Officials at the bank said the procedure had been adopted by the treasury department after a survey found that 100 percent of respondents would answer a call from a stranger claiming to be a tax inspector. Staff have been issued matching headsets, and the bank's call centre in Bucharest has added a second floor to accommodate the additional operators needed to make outgoing calls to customers who have just called in.
The bank confirmed that clients who have not answered the second call within the allotted time will have their transfers held until they answer a third call, which the bank has undertaken to place at a time of the client's choosing, within working hours.