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Digital journeysSeptember 12 2022

Numberless payment cards prove a mixed bag

Banks worldwide are increasingly launching cards without numbers. Do they offer enhanced security, or are they just a fad? Bill Lumley reports.
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Numberless payment cards prove a mixed bagImage: Getty Images

Numberless payment cards – those without the usual account-identifying digits printed across their face – are on the rise. This number erasure is purported by some to reduce the risk of fraud, but is seen by others merely as an attempt to appeal to bank customers’ aesthetic preferences.

Singapore’s latest digital bank, Trust Bank, was launched this month, and claims to be the first in the country to offer a numberless payment card. The new bank, a joint venture between Standard Chartered and the National Trade Union Congress of Singapore (NTUC), claims it is joining a steady stream of numberless card launches around the world in recent months.

One such launch was by Nigerian challenger bank Eyowo at the end of August, which announced the “Better Card”. Eyowo claims its numberless cards give cardholders access to safer and more secure payments while “eliminating” the risk of card fraud.

Despite these announcements, and though first introduced as a concept in 2020, the numberless card concept is yet to set the world alight. In the UK, Barclays, HSBC and First Direct have taken to removing the 16-digit embossed numbers on the front of the card and relocating them, printed, to the back, while Chase has removed the numbers altogether. 

However, a recent survey by UK consumer body Which? revealed that almost half of consumers who do not yet have a numberless card say they do not want one, and more than 70% said they do not see the benefit.

Drawbacks

Graham Mott, director of strategy at UK cash machine network Link, says a card number is essential for remote purchases. The ideal card for consumers is one that can be used globally, he says, adding that “you will need a number if you’re going to use the card for card-not-present transactions if, for example, you are going to buy something over the phone”.

The most important thing is universality of access and acceptance

Graham Mott

Take the example of signatures on the back of cards. Although there is very little use for them in the UK, for example, if you want your card to be usable worldwide, then your card issuer is going to have to accommodate the US, where most payments still involve a signature. “That is why some of these facilities on cards, which look a bit old-fashioned, are still in use today,” explains Mr Mott. “Because if you want your card to be accepted anywhere, when you’re on holiday for example, then you might still need that facility. And I think that’s the most important thing: universality of access and acceptance.” 

He adds that his “personal feeling is that the numberless card is a bit of a marketing gimmick, trying to make it look cool, sexy and exciting,” and that “the fraud advantages are relatively small”.

Security

When Chase launched its numberless card in the UK in early 2020, it said customer details would be stored behind a secure login on its app. This meant they would not be putting their personal details at risk if they lose their card, and should a customer ever need to replace their card details, they can instantly generate new ones in the app.

In Singapore, the Trust Bank numberless card has no numbers on either the front or the back, and it works in conjunction with an app. Given that in south-east Asia today it is rare for anyone not to have smartphone access, an overwhelming majority of Trust Bank customers are likely to be able to see their details including their card number.

According to the bank, the numberless card design helps to reduce fraud resulting from either physical card theft or cloning. Opportunity for fraud is rife, with the NTUC ecosystem having more than one million interactions every day in Singapore from a population of five million.

Contactless transactions seem the most obvious occasions for numberless cards to be used. Lloyds Bank this month revealed that almost 90% of UK card transactions are now contactless, and there is scope for them to rise higher. Contactless payments are safe, according to Mr Mott, who says that raising the contactless limit in the UK from £45 to £100 last year resulted in no discernible increase in fraud.

Numberless cards may indeed still be little more than a marketing gimmick in many regions, but in south-east Asia where apps are in common daily usage, they have a higher portability and make more sense insofar as they can eliminate fraud from cloning. And as apps become more universally acceptable elsewhere, they may indeed become the norm.

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