Do you find comfort in bank debit cards that do not require any authorisation code when swiped at any sale terminal? Such offline cards will soon be replaced by
online debit cards that require you to type in your secret code for each transaction.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to issue only online debit cards, including co-branded cards. "Debit cards should be issued to customers having Saving Bank/Current Accounts but not to cash credit/ loan account holders," it said.
"Banks which are presently issuing offline debit cards may conduct a review of their offline
debit card operations and discontinue operations of such cards within a period of six months," the RBI said in a circular dated 12 December 2012.
The RBI has said that banks cannot dispatch cards to customers without their consent, except when it is a replacement for an existing card.
To make authorisation codes safe from being divulged accidentally, banks are required to include a condition putting the cardholder under an obligation not to record the code in any form that can be accessible to any third party.
Banks have been
advised to have a mechanism to allow report of stolen cards, erroneous as well as fraudulent transactions at any point in time. Customers will have to report such incidences immediately after gaining knowledge about it.
"The cardholder shall bear the loss sustained up to the time of notification to the bank of any loss, theft or copying of the card but only up to a certain limit (of fixed amount or a percentage of the transaction agreed upon in advance between the cardholder and the bank), except where the cardholder acted fraudulently, knowingly or with extreme negligence," the RBI said.
The central bank has also advised banks to issue cards with photograph of customers to minimise the risk of frauds.
