BB to make PIN use mandatory for POS transactions

In the wake of recent POS and ATM fraudulences, Bangladesh Bank is going to make mandatory the use of personal identification number while settling transactions by clients through their credit and debit cards using point of sale machines.
Tricksters have recently embezzled huge amount of money of clients of different banks by using POS machines.
The BB received a number of allegations in last few days that the fraudsters withdrew the money through the POS machines by cloning the credit and debit cards.
Against the backdrop, the central bank will ask the banks to make it mandatory to use PIN from June 30 of this year while settling transactions through credit and debit cards on POS machines.
The merchants will have to settle the transactions through the debit and credit cards in presence of the clients.
‘The BB will issue a circular in this regard in the shortest POSsible time,’ an official of the central bank told New Age on Thursday.
The BB will also give a number of directives in the circular so that the information of the cardholders remains secured.
The central bank will ask the banks to take adequate measures to ensure the security of the card information as some merchants, who own POS machines, have recently leaked the information.
The tricksters cloned the debit and credit cards using the information provided by the merchants, the BB official said.
‘The acquirer bank of the POS machines will have to take responsibility if merchants appointed by the bank leak any data of the cardholders,’ he said.
The banks will have to ensure the networking security of the POS machines so that hackers cannot breach the system.
The banks will have to give instant mobile-phone SMS (short message) to the clients on mandatory basis as some banks are yet to implement the system.
The banks will have to attach POSters with all ATM booths and merchant points of the POS machines to inform the clients about accurate use of the credit and debit cards.
The BB official said that the country’s electronic payment system had recently faced huge crisis and challenges as fraudsters withdrew money by cloning debit and credit cards through automated teller machine booths and POS terminals.
To tackle the fraudulent activities, the central bank has taken a number of initiatives, he said.
He hoped that the initiative planned by the central bank would make POS transactions more protected.

News Courtesy:www.newagebd.net