Card Fraud Made Difficult

This is why SIX is launching a series of interviews with experts on the subject of preventing card fraud. We start with Christoph Müller, Head of Ecosystem Debit & Mobile Services at SIX.

The new debit cards can now also be used in e-commerce, for example for online shopping or for hotel and rental car reservations. In addition, card users can pay for their daily purchases or while shopping easily and securely with their smartphone. This means that debit cards can no longer be used only physically but in the virtual world too. Mobile payment meets a major need among card users. As before, billing takes place directly and quickly in the user’s account. This means you can see all your spending at a glance.

Yes, cardholders can continue to withdraw cash or pay for goods and services without cash at ATMs in Switzerland and abroad.

There are around eight million debit cards in circulation in Switzerland, of which around 10% are currently from the new generation. The banks have various strategies for launching the new cards. Some are changing all of them at once, while others are taking up to three years. It can therefore be assumed that almost only new debit cards will be in circulation by the end of 2023.

Debit cards are and remain very secure. The previous payment options (e.g. at the sale terminal in shops) have an extremely low fraud rate thanks to the latest technologies. With the use of cards in the online shopping sector, the topic of fraud prevention without a physical card, e.g. phishing, is gaining in importance.

SIX operates PRISMA (Payment Risk Management), a highly effective platform for fraud detection, prevention and combating. We rely on powerful monitoring that accurately detects fraudulent activity using state-of-the-art, real-time systems. By using self-learning technologies and active rule management, we can react dynamically and quickly to new fraud patterns.

Our Fraud Competence Center is home to a team of data specialists and analysts who identify emerging and changing fraud trends, work to proactively minimize them and optimize the performance of the regulations. We meet the highest security requirements thanks to our combination of efficient systems and a team of specialists.

Our Fraud Operations unit acts as an interface between the Fraud Competence Center and the banks that issue debit cards. It ensures that cardholders are proactively contacted in the event of suspicious transactions or receive optimum support in the event of confirmed card misuse.

SIX has been working very closely with banks and the police for years. Together, we operate the prevention platform card-security.ch. Cardholders are informed about the topic of card security via various channels and made aware of how to protect themselves against misuse.