Written question asked by Margaret Moran (Labour) on Monday, 15 January 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 17 January 2007. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Thursday, 18 January 2007 on behalf of the Home Office.

Banks: Security

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to make banks responsible for fraudulent transactions online.

Answer: Rules which cover responsibility for meeting the cost of fraudulent online transactions are made by the card schemes and are matters for individual merchants and their banks. This is not something in which the Government would intervene.The Government take the problem of card fraud very seriously and work closely with the finance and retail sectors and the police. The Home Office is represented on an industry-led Steering Group which aims to tackle ‘Card Not Present’ (CNP) fraud (which includes online fraud). We support practical measures being introduced by the industry to increase levels of security for internet transactions. These include Address Verification Services (AVS) and Card Security Code (CSC), along with Mastercard Secure Code and Verified by Visa which require password verification for internet transactions.

Secondary information