Security breaches feared in up to 3.2 million Indian debit cards: report

New Delhi: A slew of banks in India will either replace or ask customer to change the security codes of as many as 3.2 million debit cards on fears of potential breaches, according to a report on Thursday.

The move comes a day after the country's No. 1 lender State Bank of India said that it had blocked cards of certain customers.

Of the debit cards affected, 2.6 million are on Visa and MasterCard platforms, while 600,000 are on the home-grown RuPay platform, the report said citing unnamed people aware of the matter.

The worst-hit of the card-issuing banks are State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and Axis Bank, the paper said. Yes Bank said in a statement on Thursday it had proactively undertaken a review of its ATMs and found no evidence of any breach.

SBI had on Wednesday said that it had been informed by card network providers about a potential risk to some cards, and was replacing those cards as a precautionary measure. The bank said it is in process of issuing new cards at no cost to customers whose cards have been blocked.

Other banks did not immediately respond to requests for comment. There were 697.2 million debit cards in India as of end-July, according to data from the central bank.