The Guardian today is reporting that all the big banks - except HSBC, which also controls First Direct - are to demand that online customers use "chip and pin at home" devices to identify themselves before moving money out of their accounts, in the biggest change to personal banking since chip and pin replaced signatures at the checkout.

Millions of hand-held card reading devices will be sent, free of charge, to bank customers over the next six months in the latest attempt to fight online fraud. Regular internet users will be the first to receive the devices, in which they will have to place their debit card before making any online banking transactions. Only balance inquiries, and payments to "known and trusted" big firms such as telephone and power companies will be possible without using the devices.

Again we see the banks coming up with a solution that effectively ‘blames’ the end user for the fraud, and places the burden of responsibility on the account holder, whereas the real reason that the levels of fraud are at their peak are that Banks and other institutions are not protecting the data that they hold on us in the first place. 

It doesn’t matter how many front end systems that the banks put in place, they will never be secure if the back end systems are still open to hackers and thieves.

The real effort needs to be by the banks in protecting their systems, protecting their authorisation systems and not allowing account holders details to enter the public domain.

And NO, the NIR and ID Card is not the answer either, as this is where this costly string of front end systems and proof of identity is going to eventually end up.

Banks, businesses and government must stop being the enablers of fraud by allowing our details to be stolen.