Financial Services Association, December 25 (Reporter Peng Kefeng) As the Spring Festival approaches, overseas spending needs to beware of financial security.

On December 24, Hankou Bank announced on its official website that it will completely shut down overseas magnetic swiping transactions with magnetic stripe chip composite debit cards. This is another bank making adjustments to overseas bank card transactions after Everbright Bank previously adjusted overseas bank card limits.

Yu Zhi, a researcher at Youyi Trust, told the Financial Federation reporter that with the Spring Festival holiday approaching, overseas travel will peak. Banks will adjust relevant overseas card spending rules to help protect the safety of customers' funds.

Hankou Bank: Magnetic stripe chip composite debit cards will be closed for overseas magnetic swiping transactions

In the announcement, Hankou Bank stated that in order to further utilize the bank's debit card chip transaction security advantages, prevent the risk of overseas magnetic stripe transactions, and protect customers' financial security, the bank will completely shut down overseas magnetic stripe chip composite debit card transactions starting December 24, 2024.

Hankou Bank further pointed out that the bank's magnetic stripe chip composite debit card only supports transactions by reading the chip in overseas ATMs and POS terminals, and no longer supports swiping the magnetic stripe to complete the transaction. The bank's stock of pure magnetic stripe cards and magnetic stripe chip composite debit cards newly issued after December 24 all enable the debit card's “cross-border lock” function by default to prevent the risk of overseas transactions. The transaction security lock can be set through the bank's business outlets, mobile banking, and customer service hotline channels.

Today, according to public information, Hankou Bank, formerly known as Wuhan Commercial Bank, was established on December 16, 1997. It is a regional joint-stock commercial bank headquartered in Wuhan with independent legal personality. By the end of December 2023, the bank had assets of 531.8 billion yuan, various deposit balances of 395.2 billion yuan, and various loan balances of 324.5 billion yuan.

Everbright Bank also previously called “limits” on overseas spending in the industry to guarantee the safety of customers' funds

It is worth noting that on December 17, Everbright Bank published an announcement on its official website on adjusting the amount and transaction limit for overseas POS (including Macau) debit cards.

In the announcement, Everbright Bank stated that starting at 0:00 (Beijing time) on December 18, 2024, the bank will adjust the overseas (including Macau) POS spending limits for Everbright Bank debit cards held by customers. Among them, the daily limit for regular customers is 0.1 million yuan, the number of transactions per day is 10, and the cumulative annual limit is 0.1 million yuan. The daily limit for VIP customers is 0.1 million yuan, the number of transactions per day is 10, and the cumulative annual limit is 0.2 million yuan. In addition, the daily mobile banking limit for regular customers is 0.2 million yuan, 20 transactions per day, and the cumulative annual limit is 0.2 million yuan; the daily mobile banking limit for VIP customers is 0.2 million yuan, 20 transactions per day, and the cumulative annual limit is 0.5 million yuan.

Everbright Bank finally stated that the bank will adjust overseas POS spending amounts and transaction limits for debit cards held by customers in accordance with the quota standards in the relevant tables. Customers can adjust the limit according to their personal needs through the bank's mobile banking or branch counter starting at 0:00 (Beijing time) on December 18, 2024.

Yu Zhi, a researcher at Youyi Trust, told the Financial Association reporter that at the end of the year, some banks successively issued rules and limits to adjust overseas bank card spending, which should be related to the peak overseas travel period around the Spring Festival. Objectively speaking, this move will cause some inconvenience for customers to spend overseas and increase some costs, but the main purpose is to ensure the safety of customers' funds and prevent related risks.