Your SBI Debit Card blocked at bank ATM or did you get this message? Here is why you should rush

These days people having a bank account in State Bank of India (SBI) are frequently receiving messages about the blocking of their SBI debit card. The message reads as per the RBI guidelines, 'your existing SBI debit card is blocked and replaced by the chip-based new SBI debit card, which is also known as SBI EMV (Europay Mastercard and Visa) Cards'. For enhanced security and compliance with RBI (Reserve Bank of India) guidelines for migration of EMV Cards, SBI is blocking existing Magstripe based SBI debit cards of its account holders permanently and giving SBI EMV Cards as a replacement. So, if an SBI debit cardholder is unable to withdraw money from the ATM (Automated Teller Machine) he or she should rush to its home branch or contact home brach through internet banking by logging in at www.onlinesbi.com.

For information to the SBI debit card holders, in May 2015, the RBI directed all Indian banks to phase out the existing debit cards in a calibrated manner giving them December 31st, 2018 as a deadline for this job. This whole exercise was aimed at meeting the global standards of debit and credit card payments and attain more secured transaction through debit and credit cards. These EMV Cards are chip-based debit cards that contain chances of economic frauds through malware attacks like card cloning or skimming.

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On why this EMV Card is necessary for the SBI debit card users and other bank debit card users, the Indian government answered this while responding to a question in the parliament, "In the last three years to FY17, India registered a robust 3,409 cases of reported bank fraud involving credit cards, debit cards and internet banking leading to amount loss to the tune of Rs 134 crore." This was mainly due to the malware attacks leading to the debit card or credit card phishing, vishing and skimming as the cyber wing of the economic offense were unable to contain this rise in malware attacks.

So, by hotlisting your SBI debit cards, the RBI is not only trying to meet the global standards of card payments, but it is also trying to ensure the safety of your hard earned money for which you feel safe after depositing it in your SBI bank account.