Shanghai municipal authorities yesterday urged domestic financial service institutions to step up efforts against illegal activities involving bank cards.

 

The move comes at a time when Shanghai has been working to develop its fledgling bank card industry in connection with the city's efforts to become a financial hub.

 

According to official figures, Shanghai's public security department investigated more than 600 criminal cases involving debit or credit cards last year. Overseas criminals were linked to some of those cases.

 

"More and more foreign criminals and more advanced technologies are appearing in such cases," Vice-Mayor Feng Guoqin told a gathering yesterday of leaders of domestic banks and representatives of local governments.

 

He alerted the bank representatives to a case in which an unidentified hacker stole at least 45.7 million credit card numbers and other personal data from the US retailer TJX.

 

In Shanghai, more than 920 people reported stolen bank cards last year, claiming combined losses of about 14 million yuan (US$1.83 million), only a third of which was recovered, said Zhu Ying, deputy director of the city's public security bureau.

 

Zhu Yumei, an employee of a trading company, was one recent victim. Zhu claimed 110,000 yuan was stolen from her two bank cards accounts after an online transaction.

 

The vice-mayor told domestic financial institutions to improve the security of their online trading systems, curb leaks and illegal use of personal data and strengthen the supervision of self-service machines and shops equipped with point-of-sale (POS) machines.

 

He also encouraged them to partner with public security departments to issue early warnings against any suspected cases of theft or fraud.

 

Shanghai is building itself into an international financial center. The bank card industry is a key part of this effort.

 

Figures released by the local banking regulator suggested that there were about 75 million bank cards in use at the end of last year, with card transactions becoming increasingly common during that period. The profit earned on each card grew by 116.7 percent to 20.8 yuan last year, compared with 9.6 yuan in 2005.

 

Shanghai leads the country in terms of the number of POS machines in operation, with 84,000, accounting for 10 percent of the nation's total.

 

"But there's still room for further growth," Feng said.

 

It is expected that by the end of next year, 40 percent of all consumer purchases will be made with bank cards, up from the current 35 percent. More than 90 percent of merchants are expected to accept cards by that time.

 

(China Daily May 23, 2007)