21% of South African respondents surveyed for the 'Card Security Research Report' say that all their bank card PINs are the same.

The report commissioned by First National Bank (FNB) and technology payments company, Visa, was conducted by independent research agency - Columinate.

Columinate conducted the online survey among 811 South Africans of all race groups, ages and genders who have bank accounts and who use their cards regularly.

And according to the report's findings, 21% of respondents are at higher risk of card fraud because they use the same PINs for all their bank cards.

And 25% said that some of their bank card PINs are the same, the research report noted.

The research also found that 50% of consumers say they choose random numbers for their bank card PINs.

However, 24% said that their PINs represent a significant personal number such as a wedding day or birthday.

According to banking crime statistics by the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) last year, there was an increase of 102% to 31 million in lost or stolen card fraud.

The Sabric stats further highlighted that South Africa's banking industry gross fraud losses due to credit card fraud grew by 22% – from R300,6 million in 2012 to R366,8 million in 2013.

Meanwhile, debit card fraud losses decreased by 42% between January and September 2013, falling from R204 million to R117,7 million.

Sabric attributed the decrease to new banking systems, and increased collaboration between the industry and law enforcement.