In the first half of 2024, more than 15 million KGS ($177.6 thousand) were debited from Kyrgyz bank card holders without their consent. This figure is only one million KGS less than the total amount lost due to unauthorised transactions in 2023. Meanwhile, most of this money was stolen from cards in the second quarter of this year. This is a new record for total losses suffered by customers within three months.

Though the number of unauthorised withdrawals from bank cards decreased in the first quarter of 2024, there were still 104 such incidents that resulted in a loss of 1.6 million KGS. All these unauthorised transactions were conducted online, with Visa international system cards being the main target.

Visa accounted for 103 out of 104 incidents, with the average damage from each transaction amounting to 15,408 KGS. Cardholders of the country's national payment system card ‘Elkart’ reported only one unauthorised transaction, which resulted in a loss of 19,800 KGS.
It should be added that no cases of fraud with MasterCard cards have been registered during this period.

Despite these figures, the losses of cardholders in the first quarter were significantly lower than in the fourth quarter of 2023, when 4.6 million KGS were stolen. At that time, Visa users lost 4.4 million KGS, Elkart users lost 109,700 KGS, and MasterCard accounted for 75,300 KGS due to unauthorised transactions.

However, this short-term decline in fraud activity did not last long. By the second quarter of 2024, the number of unauthorised transactions had risen sharply and almost as much money had been lost as during the previous year. According to the Kyrgyz National Bank, there were 568 unauthorised transactions using Visa cards and one using the Elkart card during that period.

The financial loss turned out to be significant. Visa cardholders lost 13.6 million KGS, while the losses in the case of Elkart amounted to only 3,000 KGS. The average amount stolen per transaction from Visa cards increased to twenty-four thousand and seventeen KGS.

For comparison, during the analogous period last year (Q2 2023), 301 unauthorised transactions were recorded, resulting in a total loss of 4.1 million KGS. This means the amount stolen from cards has increased 3.3 times and the number of fraudulent transactions has almost doubled.

"The estimated volume of unauthorised card withdrawals is only 0.005% of total card transactions. Investigations are ongoing and the refund process is being carried out in line with the payment system rules,’ the NBKR said.

In addition, commercial banks reported 65 cases of unauthorised withdrawals from foreign bank cards using ATMs or terminals in Kyrgyzstan. Thus, 1.7 million KGS was withdrawn from foreign bank cards at our banks' ATMs.