Smart Nation Secrecy can be costly
For many years, I have been quite critical about the wrong thinking on secrecy. I am particularly the thinking that the bank account number must be kept secret. Recently, this has now been extended to the move to make the NRIC number secret. 

Our wrong approach on this issue has made Singapore inefficient and costly. We need to address it. 

Bank Account No
Keeping the bank account and the NRIC number secret is not necessary. Worse, it is costly to the economy and to business, as it requires other more expensive ways to identify the account or a person.

Let me deal first with the bank account. The account number is printed on each cheque book. When a person writes a cheque, his bank account number is already known to the receiving party and to other people who processes the cheque. It does not need to be a secret. 

What happens if, as a country, we recognize that the bank account number can be shown? Many individuals and organizations will be willing to show their bank account number for online payment. They do not need to write cheques as they could send online payments directly to the payee. This would save the millions of dollars that are being spent on processing cheques.

Recently, we introduce the FAST system of making payments. Instead of showing the bank account number, we used a troublesome process of registering a proxy (using the mobile phone or business registration number) instead of the bank account. It has caused confusion. 

I made a FAST payment to a friend. He checked a few days later and told me that he did not receive it. I showed the transaction slip to him. After investigation, he found that the transaction went into another bank account (which he forgot). 

If we recognize that the bank account number is not secret, it will be useful for the payer to know the name of the payee when they make a payment to a bank account number. This is to ensure that the payer did not make a mistake in entering the number. It is helpful to confirm the identity of the payee.

NRIC
Recently, there are moves to make the NRIC number secret. This is unnecessary. It will be costly to the economy and to business. 

The NRIC is a way to identify a person. A person is identified by his name, but that is not sufficient, as there are several people with the same name. A unique NRIC helps to identify a person uniquely.

In the past, the passport number uses the NRIC number. It was easy to remember. The number does not change with each renewal of the passport. 

The NRIC is used as the means to identify a person using SingPass. Many businesses also use the NRIC as a means to identify a person, who is the customer of the bank.

Recently, there is a move to reduce the use of the NRIC under the Privacy and Data Protection Act. This move is misplaced. It is unwise. It will cause a lot of unnecessary expenses to change thousands of computer systems and database and will incur high cost in the future to sort out the confusion and the mistakes.

What are the risks?
There is concern that hackers and fraudsters can use the bank account number and the NRIC number, if they are easily known.

This concern is misplaced. Access to a bank is protected by a password and a 2FA (second factor authentication). 

Similarly, access to databases that are identified by the NRIC number can also be protected by a password and 2FA, depending on the need.

In fact, if higher security is necessary, the government should allow businesses to use the SingPass. This would be helpful to businesses to reduce the cost of authentication and ensure a higher level of security.

In spite of password protection and 2FA, there will still be crooks and fraudsters who attempt steal data and money. These crimes cannot be stopped by keeping the bank account or NRIC numbers secret. In fact, the crooks will know how to get them easily. They crimes can be stopped or deterred through police investigation and prosecution.

Conclusion
Let us get rid of the cost and inefficiency due to the wrong thinking about secrecy. Let us make the bank account number and NRIC number used effectively to improve national efficiency and and actually enhance the security of our business processes.

Tan Kin Lian


 

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