bank card

Citigroup Inc has confirmed a data breach at its Citi Account Online, which resulted in that hundreds of thousands of bank card accounts were compromised. The hack was first reported by the Financial Times.

Recently Citi discovered unauthorized access to its Citi Account Online systems having conducted a routine monitoring. The company reported about 1% of card customers were affected by the hack. Citi said that names of the customers, account numbers and contact information including email addresses of the affected accounts were viewed.

The fact that Chinese banks have issued more than 1.8 billion bank cards has grabbed the attention of foreign banks.

Bank of East Asia has become the first overseas bank to issue yuan-denominated credit cards in China independently. In order to attract customers the bank has left application procedures almost the same as with domestic lenders, setting annual fees and other commissions at the rates of 20–30% higher, and abstaining from the annual fee for the first year. Moreover, the Bank of East Asia is offering free on-line banking as well.