Credit & Debit Card Processing News

There is still quite a few changes happening over the next 3 years related to credit card processing.  We have already seen the PCI Compliance changes and the MasterCard Gift Card partial authorization requirements put in place.

Next up are the unique terminal ID requirements and EMV (Eurocard, MasterCard, and Visa) requirements related to contactless credit cards (what the rest of the world is already using).  Both of these new requirements will mean some software and some likely hardware changes. Be sure to stay current on your point of sale software maintenance agreements so you receive software updates as they become available.

If for some reason you are still not PCI Compliant, here is some industry data you need to be aware of related to not being PCI Compliant:

"According to Sean Kramer, president and CEO of Element Payment Services, the penalties for noncompliance are severe. “The penalties can include the loss of the ability to accept credit card payments, noncompliance investigations, and fines. In fact, according to the 2012 Security- Metrics Payment Card Threat Report study, credit card breaches cost retailers $5.7 million per incident on costs, which include detection, notification, legal fees, loss of customers, and brand damage. On average this equates to $194 per compromised credit card, according to the 2011 Cost of Data Breach Study published by the Ponemon Institute,” Kramer says."

You can read the complete article (which also talks about why point of sale programs like our NCR CounterPoint solution are now offering point to point encryption) by clicking here. Note that this article is more for businesses who provide point of sale solutions.

Terminal ID Requirements

In 2014 there is a proposed change related to making sure that each point of sale or credit card terminal has a unique ID. This will help narrow down fraudulent transactions to see if they are isolated or more widespread. Again, software and hardware changes are likely in order to comply with this proposed requirement. 

EMV

I have talked a bit about the EMV standard hitting the US in late 2015.  It is something that we all need to plan (and budget) for.  This will involve both software updates and hardware changes.

You can find a more detailed explanation of EMV here and here.

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.