Credit card fraudsters are increasingly targeting the Middle East, it was revealed.

They find themselves thwarted by new technology being introduced in other international markets, a key figure behind an organisation of card companies said.

Vendorcom chairman Paul Rodgers was speaking following the organisation's inaugural Cards and Payments Conference at the Ritz-Carlton, Bahrain Hotel and Spa - which attracted representatives from big name firms such as Visa and Arab Financial Services (AFS).

The event featured presentations on a number of issues facing card providers, but chief among these, Rodgers said, was the introduction of more stringent fraud reduction measures.

"Fraud is definitely on the increase in this region - in the other regions it is beginning to fall as other countries have initiated new methods to reduce it. Now fraud is migrating around the world.

"We are not talking about casual little individuals who are going to a minor credit card fraud - these are big international money laundering, often terrorism-led or drugs-led organisations that are trying to raise money for their activities," he said.

A possible solution is the introduction of the Chip'n'PIN system which requires cardholders to enter a numerical code instead of merely submitting a more easily abused signature.

"The Chip'n'PIN card standard is being applied in this region and is starting to roll-out. Many of the organisations here are starting to realise that by listening to the experiences from organisations from different parts of the world they don't have to start from the scratch. They can move forward a little more quickly and avoid some of the pitfalls of the somewhere like the UK market - which had hundreds of millions of pounds of fraud going through debit and credit cards until they started introducing these new standards.

"It is increasingly favoured and the central banks are starting to mandate this and they want to see this happening," Mr Rodgers said.

Such a wholesale change comes with a price-tag to those financial institutions that make the decision to adopt new technology, he added.

"All cards need to be reissued to move from a magnetic strip card to a Chip'n'PIN card. Shops will have to change their systems to accept these new cards and the ATMs will have to change as well - so it is a big change of infrastructure," he said.

But this technology and a further measure known as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DDS) which aims to prevent the misuse of credit card details of customers stored in retail outlets, is worth the cost.

"You cannot overestimate the sort of impact fraud has on card-holder confidence and the general confidence in the use of credit cards, as well as and their confidence in the retail stores that are compromised - it's a big issue," Mr Rodgers said.

He said the card and payments industry was undergoing a revolution and a rise in so-called contactless payments - where a card can just be waved in front of a reader to pay for low value payments such as transport costs - was likely.

"That is definitely going to increase whether it is credit or debit or now these pre-paid cards where people will put money on a card and use this contactless method say in Starbucks and just have the card for a quick low value payment and the money will be debited from their card," he said.

"The card schemes, the banks and the issuers are making it much easier for people to pay without money in their wallets," he added.

Vendorcom is a UK-based organisation representing stakeholders in the card payments industry which has been increasingly active in the Middle East region and staged a number of events in Bahrain.

Electronic payments processor ACI Worldwide, established in Bahrain in 1989 is one of the latest firms to join Vendorcom's Middle East community.

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