If you’re using your credit or debit card to shop today, don’t forget to carry a photo identity card along. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has instructed all banks to ask shop- and store-owners to verify the identity of the cardholders whenever they make a high-value purchase, through authoritative photo identity proofs like PAN-, passport- or voter-ID cards. The request for an ID proof is part of a new drive by the RBI and payment-processing firms, such as Visa Inc. and MasterCard Worldwide, to prevent the fraudulent use of credit and debit cards.
ICICI Bank, which is the country’s largest private sector bank and also the largest credit card issuer with around 8.5 million cards, on Friday informed its customers that they might be required to prove their identity at merchant outlets (or stores) when they are making high-value purchases using a card. The bank has asked its customers to cooperate with the practice. Customers, according to an official working with a payment-processing company, will have to show an identity proof for purchases above Rs7,000. Some banks like the IDBI have asked outlets to check ID proof for purchases exceeding Rs10,000.
The move will help banks like ICICI check card fraud cases. ICICI had reported more than 8,000 cases of credit card fraud worth over Rs11 crore to the RBI between April and December 2008.
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