Sir: On April 30 I got my debit card stolen in Karachi. After stealing the card, the digital thief shopped around using my debit card through swipe machines at different locations of the city. He brought the bank balance to zero within half an hour before I could get the card blocked. When I called on the helpline number of the commercial bank concerned for immediate blockage of the debit card, I was forced to think why these commercial banks have unnecessary sophisticated procedural systems, coupled with their song-and-dance marketing promos, even when it comes to calling them in an utter state of distress and emergency. It took me another half an hour to approach the banker and make him understand the issue. The banker after a lot of hassle got my debit card blocked and guided me to approach the bank’s branch to submit a dispute form. When I approached the bank’s main branch, a female staffer of the bank, instead of further guiding me in lodging a complaint, raised the concerns of authenticity of my case and said the money could not be recovered. The biggest risk in a debit card is that the shops having swipe machines do not even bother to ask for any identity during any business transaction, apart from just requiring a signature of the customer. State Bank authorities are requested to keep checks on accountability, transparency, marketing, complaints and the response mechanism of these commercial banks. Roshan Bhatti Karachi