New Delhi: India's largest lender State Bank of India has introduced an electronic debit card for e-commerce transactions, titled as 'State Bank Virtual' card, to check risks of frauds while shopping online.
The electronic card can be created by a customer using the state-run bank's Internet banking facility with transaction rights, the bank said in a statement.
The product allows the user to create a virtual card for any online transaction and the customer is not required to share the details of the principal account on the merchant website, the statement said.
State Bank Virtual has a limited shelf life, thus it can only be used for one transaction to limit the exposure of the account, it added.
"The main objective behind this new product is to provide relief to these customers and give a push to e-commerce," SBI Deputy General Manager of payment system Richhpal Singh told Mail Today.
"There are some websites which are still considered unsafe and a virtual debit card comes in handy in dealing with such websites," Singh added.
In the last few months, online transactions have increased in India. During the first 11 months (Apr-Feb) of the last fiscal year 2011-12, debit card transactions worth Rs 480 billion were conducted at points of sale, a data issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said. For full fiscal year 2010-11, debit card transactions were valued at Rs 357 billion.
Shares of State Bank of India Monday were trading at Rs 2,251 on the Bombay Stock Exchange at 11:08 am, down 0.42% from the previous close.
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