Now Government wakes up to credit card fraud

An article that appeared today in the Mumbai Mirror, edition dated 22nd June 2007 talks about MRTPC getting into act to probe the wrong doing of Credit Card companies.

It is a known fact amongst people who watch this industry that this kind of skimming has been happening for year. The Credit Card Industry is so loaded with money that they have been able to buy silence from the authorities.

My question is, when a person commits a robbery by snatching a chain on the street, you first beat him up, then haul him to the nearest police station, then the police extracts their pond of flesh from the thief. Later he is consigned to the legal system where the reason why he did the act in the first place is ignored and he is sent to prison.

How many such cases can you remember of corporate thieves going to jail? Not many I believe. Therefore it becomes all the more important that this industry is reined in and the MBA's who head and manage these schemes be sent to jail. Only then the white-collar people will realize that they can not get away with fraud and larceny.

Imagine a credit card issuing company like ICICI which has 20 Million cards committing a fraud of 100 rupees on 10% of their card base. Do you think this does not happen? Wait for the MRTPC report which will tell you the truth unless these companies are able to buy the investigators from here too.

Article reproduced below for your reading pleasure.

MRTPC orders probe into credit card fees

NEW DELHI: Alarmed by reports that credit card companies have collected over Rs 6,000 crore in a decade from customers by way of fines and late fee, India’s antimonopoly w a t c h d o g has ordered a probe into the fees levied by them.

The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) has asked the Director General of Investigation and Registration (DGIR) to probe the issue and report back, sources have revealed.

The commission ordered the probe after taking cognizance of reports that claimed credit card issuers extracted more than Rs 6,000 crore as late fee, cash, advance fee, billed finance fee, overlimit fee, cash withdrawal fee, insurance charges, cheque pick-up fee and service taxes during the past 10 years.
DGIR would direct banks to furnish details of their income during last three-four years derived from other than the credit limits (extra charges), the sources added.

As per the MRTPC Act, DGIR has to submit its preliminary investigation report before the commission within 90 days.

The commission has already initiated judicial enquiry against Citibank, HSBC, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank for adopting unfair practices for selling credit cards, as the DGIR submitted its preliminary report in which it suspected these organisation to have violated norms.

In its report, DGIR had found that these banks were making false promises to their credit card customers and caused loss to the general public by violating the rules framed by the Reserve Bank of India. It also alleged that the banks were delaying delivery of bills and realisation of cheques toward payment just to charge increased interest rate, late fee and fines, etc.

The commission had initiated judicial enquiry against HDFC on November 10 last on the same grounds.

The sources added enquiries against American Express Bank, ABN Amro and country’s largest lender State Bank of India on the same issue are also going on. PTI