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Svenska Handelsbanken AB has launched a service that enables its Norwegian cardholders to block use of their cards in certain areas, the Sweden-based bank says in a statement this week. The bank developed the service with Norway-based EDB Business Partners. Consumers can go online and limit use of their cards to specific countries, the statement says. "The majority of card fraud take place when people are traveling abroad. However, this kind of fraudulent transaction does not necessarily take place in the country or region where the customer has used the card and can instead take place from a quite different location," Wiljar Nesse, EDB executive vice president for bank and finance, says in the statement. The service would enable, for instance, a customer who never visits Austria or South America to block use of his cards in those areas. The bank has issued at least 1.3 million cards. Though point-of-sale card fraud has declined as more countries move to chip cards that carry the global EMV antifraud application, card-not-present fraud from online purchases has increased, officials say.
