Financial institutions in the securities and futures industries last year reported a large increase in the number of suspicious transactions attributed to debit and credit card fraud — nearly double the number reported in 2007, new statistics released by the federal government show. The numbers come from an annual report released by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. The report tracks so-called “suspicious activity reports” (SARs), which financial institutions are required to file when they spot customer transactions of $5,000 or more that set off various red flags most commonly associated with money laundering or other fraudulent activity. Originally, these filings were required only of traditional financial institutions, but in 2003, the government began requiring the reports from trading firms and mutual fund providers, too. According to FinCEN, the number of SARs that investment firms attributed to credit and debit card fraud jumped