Banque de la Méditerranée says its objective is to use the convenience and low cost of mobile telephone messaging to offer its customers peace of mind, while helping to protect them from card fraud.

CTL's ONLINE authorisation system, part of the company's PRIME solution for card and merchant management, generates an SMS each time a card is used to attempt a transaction. The SMS is then forwarded to the SMS gateway provided to Banque de la Méditerranée by elbarid.com and sent to the cardholder's mobile phone. The SMS tells cardholders whether requests to authorise transactions were approved or rejected; it also identifies the place where transactions are taking place. If a cardholder is unaware of a transaction attempt, it could be that the SMS notification has highlighted a case of skimming, (wherein a fraudster gets cards data and uses it on a fake card). The cardholder can call the bank to block further transactions.

Banque de la Méditerranée has completed a live test with a group of credit and charge cardholders and rolled out the new service. It advertised the service in its branches and sent an SMS to eligible customers, advising them how to subscribe.