Credit card frauds rise to 1,590 in Dec

The number of credit card frauds rose to 1,590 in the quarter ended December 2012 involving an amount of Rs 948.64 lakh (9.48 million), Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

"As per information furnished by Reserve Bank of India there were 1,590 cases of credit card frauds involving an amount of Rs 948.64 lakh during the quarter ended December 2012 as compared to 1,327 cases involving an amount of Rs 492.98 lakh (Rs 4.92 million) in the quarter ended September 2012," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

He said RBI has taken various measures to prevent such frauds and has issued various guidelines from time to time.

RBI has advised banks to set up internal control systems to combat frauds, take pro-active measures, ensure credit card operations

are safe, sound and profitable, preventive measures to combat frauds relating to skimming or duplication of cards.

Also, RBI has asked banks move to secure Card Not Present transactions, making it mandatory for banks to put in place additional authentication/validation.

"RBI has issued guidelines which are fundamentally expected to enhance safety, security, efficiency in banking processes relating to benefits for banks and their customers.

The implementation progress is required to be reviewed and report submitted to the Board on quarterly basis," Meena said.

In reply to a separate question, the minister said the gross non-performing assets of the public sector banks has increased from Rs 71,080 crore (Rs 710.8 billion) as on March 2011 to Rs 1,12,489 crore (Rs 1,124.89 billion) as on March 2012.

As on December 2012, the gross NPAs of the public banks rose to Rs 1,55,839 crore (Rs 1,558.39 billion).