In most card transactions in Indonesia, the customer’s debit or credit card is swiped both on the Electronic Data Capture (EDC) machine as well as the merchant’s cash register. According to Indonesia’s central bank Bank Indonesia (BI), the latter method actually poses a security risk.
BI recently issued a reminder that they had introduced renewed banking regulations last year prohibiting merchants from using customers’ cards for any other purpose than to facilitate a financial transaction. BI said that it’s possible that by swiping a card on the cash register on top of the EDC machine, the merchant may gain access to private information about the customer contained in the card.
“In the new regulation there’s a prohibition of merchants acquiring data using their cash registers,” said BI Executive Director of Communications Agusman, as quoted by CNN Indonesia yesterday.
BI also warned that merchants still caught double swiping face the risk of their partnering banks terminating their electronic transaction facilities.
Indonesia’s largest banks, including Bank Central Asia (BCA) and Bank Mandiri, also issued statements that they are prohibiting merchants from swiping their customers’ cards on the cash register.
“If (the card) is swiped on the cash register, we don’t know where the card’s data goes, and it’s possible for the data to be misused,” said Bank Mandiri Corporate Secretary Rohan Hafas, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.
Despite the warnings, CNN Indonesia journalists found that cashiers still swipe their customers’ cards twice on the EDC machine and the cash register in accordance to their companies’ policies. One cashier even argued that it’s necessary to swipe the card in order to be able to print the shopping receipt.
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