Credit Cards: Fraud up slightly

The rate of payment fraud and credit card withdrawals increased slightly in France in 2012, said Tuesday the governor of the Bank of France Christian Noyer.In 2012, the fraud rate reached 0.080% of the amount of transactions, or € 450.7 million, against 0.077% in 2011. This rate is up for the fifth consecutive year, according to the Observatory for Payment Card Security, which released its report Tuesday.

This is mainly attributable to a significant increase in fraud at international level (11.2%) due to an increase in card theft and piracy data when traveling abroad but also to an increase in fraud on foreign websites (37%).

Noyer nevertheless welcomed the decline in the rate of payment fraud on the internet in France 'for the first time since 2008', to 0.290% against 0.341% of payments in 2011.

Rise of safety devicesThis is explained by the rise of safety devices for authentication of cardholders, which now represent 27.5% of the transactions in value against 23% in 2011.

These type devices '3 D Secure 'baptized' Verified by Visa 'and' MasterCard Secure Code 'in the two largest credit card, require an additional step when paying with the entry of a code received by SMS or Intelligence birth date.

However, the nominal amount of internet fraud has continued to grow last year and still represents 61% of total fraud.

'This is why I call on all stakeholders, including online merchants most vulnerable to fraud, to continue in 2013 actions to help secure online payments', urged the Governor of the Bank of France Christian Noyer, also president of the Observatory, at a press conference.

In addition, 'the shifting of fraud to international transactions clearly shows that the fight against fraud can not stop at the national level', said Mr Noyer.

A European forum 'Secure Pay', which brings together central bankers and supervisors, was created in this way, to coordinate prevention activities.