The suggestion by Ms Soh Siew Wee to display the name of the recipient when performing a fund transfer via ATM is not feasible ("Display recipient's name as safeguard"; yesterday).

Under the banking laws, information of customers must be kept in strict confidence. Disclosing the name of an account holder without his consent is not compatible with the law.

Displaying the account holder's name is risky, as it allows people to fish for names by keying in random account numbers.

In international fund transfer centres like New York and London, account numbers take precedence over the names of the account holders. As these transactions are processed electronically, payment systems recognise only the account number, and ignore the name.

Therefore, the onus lies with the remitter to be careful with the account number, to avoid funds being inadvertently credited to another person's account.

Chin Kee Thou