Banks Feeling The Post-Breach Bite

U.S. banks are feeling the pinch after a wave of business data breaches forced the reissuance of millions of credit and debit cards.

The replacement costs come at an estimated $15 per card when taking into account the costs of plastic, embossing and encoding, PIN generation, mailers and postage, card activation, new-account setup, expanded call-center operations and processor fees, The Hill reported on Feb. 11.

Factoring in the fact that the Target breach alone led to the compromised data of at least 100 million customers, the price tag can spiral quickly. The Consumer Bankers Association estimates that at least 15 million cards have been reissued since the breaches first came to light.

“The impact of the security breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels are very real for the banks charged with protecting their customers. The intrusion is touching every street of the nation, and banks of all sizes must monitor their customers’ accounts for fraudulent activity and reissue debit and credit cards that are at risk,” The Hill noted in the blog post.

In a recent commentary, Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster predicted that the data breach’s impact on the financial system would be costly, to say the least. Read her thoughts on the matter here.

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