Digital Transactions News

Oct. 12, 2005


“Financial institutions lost an estimated $546 million to debit card fraud in 2004, with fraud rates running much higher on signature-based cards than on cards secured with PINs, according to study released this week. Banks lost $345 million in fraud committed on ATMs, while fraud on signature-debit cards cost them $193 million and PIN debit cards at the point of sale sustained $8 million in losses. These are among new debit card fraud statistics compiled by the study, which was conducted this summer by Dove Consulting and sponsored by Pulse EFT Association, a Houston-based unit of Discover Financial Services LLC. “Transaction volumes for both PIN and signature debit continue to grow, yet observers increasingly are questioning the soundness of these payment mechanisms,” says an executive summary of the report in explaining why Dove and Pulse sought to measure fraud rates, and in particular to compare the loss rates on PIN and signature-based cards.


The loss rate attributable to signature-debit cards is approximately 15 times greater than that for PIN debit when losses are measured against either transaction or dollar volume, the study says. Fraud on signature cards ran 1.6 cents per transaction, whereas the loss rate on PIN debit ran 1/10 of a penny per payment. On average, issuers lose $1.15 per card per year to signature-debit fraud, compared with 4 cents on PIN debit cards, though the average loss on a PIN card is significantly higher: $160 versus $86 on a signature card.
Read More...