Canadian banks need to do more to stop abusive e-transfers, survivors say

WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​intimate partner violence or know someone who has.

Emma Parsons had blocked her ex-boyfriend on her phone and all of her social media apps after he inundated her with unwanted texts.

"They were very abusive messages," the Ottawa nursing student said. "They were mean. They were trying to belittle me and bully me, you know, telling me how bad I was."

He even used spoofed phone numbers to break through the wall she had tried to build for herself. That's when she started getting e-transfers from him with nasty messages attached.

"The first one was $1, and then I think the other ones were less than $5," she said. "I was so shocked. I was so surprised that he would send an e-transfer."

Parsons says she felt too embarrassed and uncomfortable to report the e-transfers to the bank or police.

"I don't feel like they'd take me seriously enough," she said. "The police would probably be like, 'Oh, here's your case number. See you in a few years."

But when she and her mother, Carmen, heard how a woman in Sault Ste, Marie, Ont., had received a flurry of abusive and threatening e-transfers before her ex murdered her in October, they decided to speak out.

"People need to know that this happens and that maybe there's things that we can do about it," said Carmen.

Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) say Canada's banks need to step up and do more to protect victims from abuse through their platforms, as some other countries are doing. 

The Canadian Bankers Association says its members do have some policies in place to protect customers and said they are always exploring ways to combat abuse, but did not offer many details. 

Some survivors of IPV say with abusive messages like these getting through, banks aren't doing nearly enough.

It's a problem the banking industry in Australia decided to tackle head on after a shocking and high-profile domestic violence case in 2014 involving the murder of an 11-year-old boy by his father, a man with a long history of abusive behaviour.

"We just saw that and said, 'We can't look away. We need to make changes.'" said Catherine Fitzpatrick, a former banking executive with the country's largest bank and a financial safety consultant.  "A lot of other sectors have followed suit."