Authors

K. Maruthavanar

Document Type

Conference Item

Publication Date

12-1-2007

Abstract

Plastic cards have invaded the monetary market as a payment instrument used to purchase goods and services. There are several types of plastic cards in the circulation namely, credit cards, debit cards, charge cards, stored value cards and smart cards. The first credit card used to eliminate the need to carry cash was the Mobil Oil, USA card issued in 1914 and the first form of charge card was the Diners card, which was used by businessmen in the 1950's to purchase meals on an expense account. Since then, a variety of cards have been introduced to customers that have a multitude of functions for their daily transactional needs. The numbers of individuals that rely on cards have increased from year to year and presently the plastic card has become an indispensable instrument in the money wallet. Among all the different types of plastic cards, the most favoured by customers is the credit card. Statistics provided by Bank Negara Malaysia indicate that as at August 2007, principal card holders number 8.22 million; supplementary card holders' number 1.15 million; and in August 2007 the number of credit card transactions using (local and foreign) credit cards totaled 20.21 million.2 The credit card appears to be the most favourite plastic card among Malaysians. However, the downside of owning the credit card is the danger of it being used by unauthorized third parties to illegally purchase goods/services or to withdraw moneys/credit advances from the automated teller machine. Is the consumer protected from incurring the liability of such illegal transactions? The writer will discuss the extent of legal protection afforded by banking laws In protecting innocent bank customers from being burdened with illegal transactions conducted in his name.

Keywords

Law, Banking

Divisions

fac_law

Event Title

The 2007 ALIN International Academic Conference

Event Location

Bangkok, Thailand

Event Dates

06-07 Dec 2007

Event Type

conference

Share

COinS