More credit cards mean more online frauds, feel experts

Security of the credit card industry in the country is the need of the hour, feel experts. This is not to mention that the industry is growing at 35%, which was more than double the global average of 32%. SBI Card alone, which has 30 lakh credit card holders on its list, has witnessed the enrolment of 10 lakh customers within a span of past 10 months alone.

However, the industry is faced with the rising concern of security threat and hence the experts have emphasized the need of the merchants and the banks to be compliant with the security.

Talking to FE, David Howell, senior manager, PCI Solutions at RSA, the security division of EMC, said that ?Though there is already a high awareness on the security of the paying card industry (PCI). And I hope that the Asian market will follow suit within next few months?. He said that there were three things that a consumer must know. They include discovering the credit card information, protecting the data and finally spanning it to the legal activity.

Some of the major card brands have issued a whitepaper on the payment card industry (PCI).

It shows the rising concern about the credit card frauds and the ways how to curb the menace. The initiative is known as PCI (Payment Card Industry) Data Security Standard (DSS) which has been developed by some of the noted card brands which include Visa International, Master Card Worldwide, American express, JCB and Discover.

According to Srikiran Raghavan, regional head sales of RSA, ?It has reported on the growing e-commerce transactions in the country thanks to broadband penetration and increased online payments through credit cards?. However he outlined the need for strong security measures and added that PCI DSS is certainly a positive force for change.

While Visa and Master Card have already indicated that they will get more aggressive in enforcing the PCI standards this year, other card brands are also likely to follow it suit.

Beginning later this year, Visa will be issuing fines for every large merchant that is not compliant. Fines will escalate over time, starting at $5,000 a month and increasing to $25,000 per month for each non-compliant merchant.