Six Pakistani banks suspend international transactions through debit cards

KARACHI: Six Pakistani banks have suspended international transactions though debit cards.

In a text message sent to customers on Friday, the banks informed, “As a security precaution your debit card has been temporarily disabled only for international ATM cash withdrawal.”

Customers can use their debit cards for local transactions.

Last week, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had issued instructions regarding bank cards after a cyber-attack on Bank Islami Pakistan.

According to SBP, the use of the bank's cards had been temporarily suspended for overseas transactions after the attack. "As a result of security breach of payment cards of one of the banks in Pakistan yesterday and their unauthorized use on different delivery channels i.e. at ATMs and POS in different countries, the bank has temporarily restricted usage of its cards for overseas transactions," the central bank had said in a statement.

The SBP had further issued directives to all Pakistani banks to ensure security of payment cards and to monitor their usage activity, especially overseas transactions, on a real-time basis.