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Denise Tsang

But banks insist local exposure is limited following a global security breach

Nearly 20,000 Hong Kong credit card accounts are at risk following the world's largest theft of electronic payment data,  card companies said yesterday.

Eight banks in Hong Kong have confirmed that some of their customers had accounts that have been compromised.

But they say exposure is limited and risks low.

MasterCard  and Visa  said on Friday they had fallen victim to a hacking operation that exposed  40 million credit card accounts worldwide to the risk of fraud.

The hackers stole 200,000 cardholders' names, account numbers, expiration dates and security codes  from servers at Atlanta-based CardSystems Solutions, which processes retail credit transactions for Visa, MasterCard and other credit cards. The theft was made  public on Friday.

In Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank,  HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia, Bank of China, DBS Bank and Liu Chong Hing Bank have all confirmed that at least some of their customers'  card accounts were among those at risk.

All claimed the exposure was limited and the  risks low. Under Hong Kong law and the customer contracts of the credit card firms, individual users are automatically protected against fraud, leaving issuing banks to bear the liabilities. MasterCard said yesterday the number of Hong Kong customer accounts at risk  stood at 9,730, or a tiny percentage  of the total of 13.9 million affected worldwide.

Visa said  9,000 Hong Kong accounts were at risk out of the total of 22 million affected worldwide.

'The situation is under control in Hong Kong because 92 per cent of the affected accounts in Hong Kong are at low risk,' a Visa spokeswoman said.

'This means only that less sensitive data, such as credit card holders' names and expiry dates, were lost.'

She called for credit card holders to  monitor their accounts and  report suspicious activity to issuing banks.

Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong's largest credit card issuer with 1.8 million  accounts, said MasterCard and Visa had provided it with a list of affected customers.

Hang Seng Bank, with 1.1 million credit card accounts, and Bank of East Asia, which has 500,000 credit card customers, said they had not received any fraud complaints related to the incident.

'Generally speaking, the exposure of Hong Kong credit card users to the saga is relatively low, but it does serve as a wake-up call for tighter regulations,' said Liu Chong Hing Bank senior manager Brian Cheung Nam-chung.

The Consumer Council said last night it had not  received any complaints from card holders.

HELPLINES

HSBC - 27483188

Standard Chartered - 28869338

Bank of East Asia - 28382032

Liu Chong Hing - 25247217

Citibank - 28600333

Hang Seng Bank - 28360838

Bank of China - 25442222

DBS Bank - 28326603



20,000 HK credit card accounts  put at risk