Bankruptcy Database Available

The financial institutions losses attributed to robbery during the past year were about $61 million, according to the FBI.

The losses to the entire financial and retail industry due to bad checks and fraud, on the other hand, are "guesstimated" by statisticians at U.S. News and World Reports to be over $24 billion annually.Losses due to fraudulent use of credit cards have ranged from an estimate of $2.1 billion to $10 billion.

However, Issuers' Clearinghouse Service (ICS) just released a most interesting loss figure. According to their report, losses to the bank card industry due just to fraudulent bankruptcies amounted to $3.5 billion!

In an attempt to combat this activity, Visa and MasterCard are teaming up with Equifax in creating a bankruptcy database. Bankruptcy data from federal courts in all 50 states will be entered on a daily basis and used for comparison purposes. If the bankruptcy information matches the credit card application information, the appropriate issuing bank will be notified in time to prevent mailing the card.

For more information on this service, call Equifax at (404) 888-5028.

Copyright © 1993 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 4, No. 3, 8/93