UK Chip And Pin 'Cuts Fraud By 13%'
The BBC reports that the new chip and Pin bank card system cut UK card fraud by 13% in 2005 according to the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS). Losses due to the fraudulent use of credit and debit cards fell last year by £65m to £439m.
Most categories of fraudulent card use dropped, except for transactions over the phone, internet or by mail. Chip and Pin cards were introduced in 2004, with their use becoming required in shops from February this year.The new type of card appears to have brought a decisive turnaround with fraud levels now back to the levels last seen in 2003. In 2004, as the new cards were being introduced, card fraud continued to shoot up, by 20%, costing banks and retailers more than half a billion pounds.
Sandra Quinn of APACS hailed the impact of chip and PIN, which has been rolled out to most of the UK retailing and banking industries since October 2003:
"Seeing card fraud losses come down is cast-iron proof that chip and PIN is doing its job. Back in 2002 we forecast that fraud would have risen to £800m in 2005 if we didn't make the move to chip and PIN so it's heartening to see total losses well beneath this figure" she said.
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