The good news is that credit-card issuers are pretty good at resolving fraud claims. The bad news, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research on the 25 top card issuers, is that preventing and detecting fraud leaves much to be desired.
The Pleasanton, CA-based firm's 2008 Card Issuers' Identity Safety Scorecard found that issuers have done a "stellar" job at fraud resolution, but they still "lag" at prevention and detection. The report ranked each of the 25 top-tier issuers on a scale from one to 100 based on their prevention, detection and resolution capabilities.
Turns out not all issuers are created equal—not by a long shot. The differences between the elite issuers and the bottom is substantial. The top five overall are Bank of America (75 points), Discover (71), FNB Omaha (69), U.S. Bank (65) and American Express (63). The lowest performers are BB&T and National City (both scoring only 38 points), State Farm Bank (36), and Credit One Bank with a woefully low score of 26.
Drilling down further, the best at prevention specifically is BofA, with Credit One last; AmEx is tops at detection for the second year running, with State Farm Bank last; meanwhile, seven issuers were tied with perfect scores for resolution, with National City being the worst.
In terms of prevention, only 48 percent had anti-phishing email policies, just 36 percent prohibited nine-digit social security number logins, and eight percent had a photo of the account holder on the card and partnerships with security vendors.
In terms of detection, 44 percent of issuers had alerts to mobile devices for account activity. None of the institutions had two-way alerts to mobile devices or integrated credit tracking. (c) 2008 Bank Technology News and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.banktechnews.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
