One of the bank’s departments has been told that it must begin truncating credit and debit card account numbers on client accounts to reduce potential fraud.
Q Are there any regulations requiring banks to truncate the credit card account number on their internal systems? The bank’s operations team needs access to the full account number for various reasons, so truncating it would create a hardship for that team.
A Federal law only requires truncation of account numbers on transaction receipts. Section 605(g) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, with narrow exceptions, requires, “[N]o person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business shall print more than the last 5 digits of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the cardholder at the point of the sale or transaction.” (emphasis added)
There are no such limitations on internal use. However, there may be state laws that apply.
For more information, contact ABA’s Leslie Callaway.
Please note that this section is not a substitute for professional legal advice.
