I REFER to last Tuesday's letter, 'Card fraud: Banks not doing enough' by Mr Paul Chan.Additional security measures were adopted before by banks but they fell out of favour. Citibank used to have a credit card with biometric fingerprint reading capabilities, but after a year or so on the market, it didn't achieve sufficient critical mass to sustain itself.

With regard to SMS notification to reconfirm transactions, I can imagine long queues of irate customers at the counters as they wait for one embarrassed person's SMS confirmation.

Putting the responsibility of fraud completely on the bank and the merchant, especially to the extent of limiting lost-card liability to $50, would only be superficially beneficial to the consumer.

Bear in mind that $50 is just 1 per cent of the typical card credit limit of $5,000 - this is an insignificant amount. By removing virtually all responsibility from the consumer, there is no longer any great loss for him if he misplaces a card.

More people will be less careful with their cards. Some will delay reporting lost cards. To cover these losses, credit card companies will implement measures that will result in more hidden costs to use credit cards, affecting all users.

The ultimate responsibility of card fraud lies with the credit card user. The credit card provides a credit service, not a security service. Consider each credit card to be worth its credit limit in cash - so be careful with it. How many of us increase our risk by having multiple cards? How many of us know the hotline to call if we lose the card? If, after taking such individual measures, one is still uncomfortable with the risk, the individual is free to purchase insurance to cover fraud.

Fong Sau Shung

This article was first published in The Straits Times.