Four large Australian banks on May 31 said they have canceled thousands of credit cards following a merchant breach that resulted in the exposure of sensitive card data.
Commonwealth Bank Ltd, Westpac Banking Corp and its subsidiary St. George Bank, and National Australia Bank Ltd altogether have blocked or canceled approximately 10,000 credit cards, according to media reports.
Commonwealth Bank said in a statement that it has sent text messages, emails and letters to notify some 8,000 of its credit cardholders of the breach and the impending cancellation or blockage of their credit card accounts.
“The bank continuously monitors all credit card transactions to protect against fraud,” the bank said. “And during this process we became aware of a potential credit card compromise through a merchant acquired by another bank.”
Commonwealth Bank said it has alerted MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. of the breach and also notified the affected merchant’s acquiring bank.
Representatives of other affected banks were not immediately available for comment.
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