Veritec system lets users turn cards on and off via their mobiles

US vendor Veritec has unveiled security technology that enables users to turn their debit card on and off with their mobile phones.

Security First Bank of Fresno has already signed up for the Mobile Toggle Card (MTC) programme, which has been added to Veritec's m-banking software platform.

Under the programme, card issuers and sponsors can provide Veritec's MTC branded debit or gift cards which users can toggle on and off with their mobile phones to prevent fraudulent use.

In addition, cardholders can also elect to receive various alerts on their mobile phones about activity on their card.

Jeff Hattara, president and CEO, Veritec, says: "People no longer have to completely rely on their card issuers to monitor possible fraudulent activity on their accounts. Cardholders can now de-activate their cards themselves, in real time, any time they choose to do so."

Security outfit MobiClear also offers a security tool which enables customers to use their mobile phones to 'switch off' credit and debit cards.

Channels

Retail banking Security Payments

Keywords

Cards Mobile & online banking

Comments: (3)

A Finextra member 22 June, 2009, 15:04

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When I saw this news I asked myself: Is the payment card scheme security set-up really so bad that there is a need for this on/off swicth for cardholders?Should not focus be on developing the user security features instead of needing on/off switches outside card scheme domain?

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A Finextra member 22 June, 2009, 15:27

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This is ultimately the way security is going: from today's paternailistic "industry-controls-all" thinking to tomorrow's "let's use new technology to give identity holders control over what happens to their identity and payment accounts". So many fraud prevention technologies work exclusively on behalf of the accountholder. Javelin's research has been predicting for years that this method will give way to those that empower consumers and business account holders, through what our safety scorecards call UDLAPs (user defined limits and prohibitions). As such technologies work with traditional back end capabilities (fraud filters, neural nets, etc), identity fraud will eventually plummet. The savings will be big, but the loyalty and acquisition benefits will be even bigger.