BANKING

MasterCard Sees Decline in Fraud: MasterCard International Inc. said its losses due to card theft and unauthorized charges eased in 1993 for the first time in six years. The No. 2 credit card company said its losses due to such fraud fell nearly 2%, to $452 million, after a 23% rise in 1992. The trend is similar to that reported in March by Visa International, the No. 1 card company, where losses fell 3.6% to $655 million. Meanwhile, counterfeit fraud--using duplicated or phony cards or magnetic stripe tampering--has been on the rise at both companies. MasterCard said counterfeit fraud jumped 75% in 1993 over the previous year; at Visa, such losses were up 7%.