Largest Convention In Payment History

Money 20/20 was billed as the largest convention in payments history held in Las Las Vegas, during the last week of October 2015.

The show delivered well-organized, incisive content such as Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) migration, mobile payments, security and omnichannel commerce.

20/20 Highlights

• Alternative lending and credit.
• Bill Payments, Financial Services: Newly released market research provides insights into the future of household bill payments, millennials, and financial services.
• Connected Commerce and the Mobile Enterprise: The Internet of Things is changing the way that consumers interact with their environments. Analysts predict up to 30 billion interactive devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020, noting that many of these devices will be payment-enabled.
• Marketing and Customer Experience: Most marketers agree that the era of demographic profiles and pull marketing is over. Retailers, card brands and information technology professionals looked at the customer experience in the digital world. They explored new marketing practices, trends in e-commerce and mobile commerce, and big data findings in other industries that may be useful to financial service companies.
• Mobile Banking: Banks are undergoing an incremental transformation as they learn to compete with nonbank lenders, balance cash management with digital currencies, and shift from local branches to online and mobile forms of banking.
• Mobile Payments: Payments analysts reviewed Apple Pay a year after its launch and a range of other mobile wallet offerings, and they speculated on how third-party wallets will impact bank apps.
• Payment Card Evolution: Payment card issuers, processors and network service providers analyzed the changing look, feel and role of payment cards in the greater ecosystem. Discussions ranged from card linking to the coolness factor of gift cards to how e-cards are expanding market opportunities.
• POS, Processing and Open Platforms: Executive roundtables with leading acquirers explored front-end and back-end technology and omnichannel commerce for small and midsize businesses.
• Regulatory Landscape: Increased federal and state oversight has had a significant impact on the financial services sector.
• Security: Security analysts made in-depth presentations on tokenization, end-to-end encryption, and secure methods of authentication designed to protect consumers, merchants and industry stakeholders from cybercriminals. Many agreed that EMV implementation in the United States will drive fraudsters to the card-not-present space. They discussed how EMV adoption has changed fraud patterns in other regions and offered examples of best practices geared toward identifying and preventing electronic payment fraud.

More than 10,000 attendees and 3,000 exhibitors from 75 countries attended Money20/20. Financial services professionals from mobile, retail, marketing services, data and technology met at what show organizers described as the intersection of mobile, retail, marketing services, data and technology.

The years to come will be a turning point in the payments sector, and with the recent shift to EMV, the entire conference confirmed that all the players are more interested than ever in finding innovative solutions for combating online fraud.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: Apple Pay, big data, bill payments, card-not-present, e-commerce, electronic payment, EMV, EuroPay, financial services, Gift Cards, MasterCard, merchants, Mobile Payments, mobile wallet, payments, POS, processors, Service providers, tokenization, visa

Contactless Payments in an Era of EMV

EMV-compliant POS systems are now being equipped with NFC technology to accept contactless payments. What does this mean for the future of payments?

EMV lays the foundation for increased card-present and contactless payments security, with EMV, magnetic stripe cards are soon to be a bygone technology. Plastic EMV cards will not have a long lifespan as payments move into a more digital space, security and NFC upgrades merchants and consumers now will carry over into the digital and mobile payments space.

Consumers are constantly looking for more convenient ways to transact, which is made possible by the simultaneous adoption of EMV and NFC. While EMV supports plastic chip cards, payments are going digital and POS systems equipped with NFC technology save consumers from digging through their wallets, making it easier for consumers to transact via mobile devices. Mobile payments should be simple, scalable and affordable in today’s payment landscape and consumers should have the option to securely store and use multiple cards within their digital wallets or applications they most often use.

EMV standards increase security for card-present payments, which are relevant to many consumers today, but the convenience of mobile and contactless payments is the future. In an era of EMV, NFC plays as critical a role in propelling both technologies forward. Retailers and card issuers alike must recognize the opportunity to take advantage of both.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Smartphone Tagged with: (POS) systems, card present, chip cards, contactless payments, Digital wallets, EMV, magnetic stripe cards, merchants, Mobile Payments, nfc technology, payments

Weak Pass PassWords and Data Breaches

Every merchants, small, medium or large, should put in some effort to protect their sensitive data. Many breaches of data could have been prevented by implementing stronger security controls and employing safety best practices in the workplace.

Weak or stolen usernames and passwords are one of the top causes of data breaches, and more than 75 percent of attacks on corporate networks are due to weak passwords. Almost half of all instances of hacking is due to stolen passwords, which are obtained through the theft of password lists. This indicates that there is no organization in any industry that is not vulnerable to a breach of data.

Studies across the board indicate that weak usernames and passwords are one of the top causes of data breaches. A strong password is the first line of defense against scammers and hackers, and to help keep your data safer.

There are risks associated with relying on weak usernames and passwords to restrict the access of data. Data breaches could have been stopped if a stronger, better password was used. Experts, including the IT team of companies, can offer assistance to employees seeking to improve their passwords and reduce risk.

Weak password means data breaches! The best passwords are long and varied, with symbols, letters and numbers. These passwords should not be obvious, such as the name of a company, address or company motto. It is difficult to enact policies for improved passwords in the workplace because employees are not informed of the facts.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: data, data breaches, merchants

Learn the new checkout process with Chip and Pin

Adoption of EMV technology in the U.S is important, because it provides protection against losses from counterfeit cards.

EMV, or chip cards, are the standard for secure point-of-sale (POS) transactions. Unlike magnetic stripe cards, chip cards are very difficult to counterfeit because of an embedded microchip that exchanges unique, dynamic data with a terminal each time it’s used.

To encourage the timely adoption of EMV, the leading payment networks have implemented an EMV Fraud Liability Shift that began in October 2015.

Both parties, card issuer and the merchant need to invest with EMV technology. If only one party has adopted EMV technology, the party that didn’t make the investment will be held liable.

For the card issuer, they came out with the chip cards, where all credit and debit cards have this security chips that are harder to counterfeit than magnetic strips.

For the merchant, an EMV capable terminals or POS hardware that can take advantage of the card’s security chip is needed.

With any new technology, there is a learning curve, and here are the things that you need to know.

For cardholders – with a chip card instead of swiping your card, you are going to do what is called card dipping; by inserting your card face-up and chip-first into the terminal slot. Wait and follow the terminal prompts, and only remove your card once the transaction is complete.

If you did a swipe on a chip card, an EMV-enabled terminal should prompt you to insert the card instead. If the terminal is not enabled for chip, you can still be able to swipe your card.

Employees will benefit from training – Once a merchant enables their EMV terminals, it is important to train your staff with talking points about why chip cards benefit consumers with greater security, and how they are used by helping customers with the new checkout process.

New mobile payment methods leverage both EMV and NFC, so the industry is now seeing greater interest in mobile payments among merchants and consumers.

There’s a lot of resources out there to help businesses make the transition with this EMV technology.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Near Field Communication Tagged with: card issuer, chip cards, debit cards, EMV, magnetic stripe, merchants, microchip, Mobile Payments, nfc, payment networks, point of sale, POS, terminal slot

Steps to find out if your business is cybersecure

Small merchants don’t consider themselves at risk for a cyberattack. But Cybercriminals thrive on data about employees, customers, bank accounts and many other types of information any small business would carry, with fewer resources than large firms, small businesses are especially at risk for attacks.

Here are Steps to find out to make your business more cybersecure:

Credit: Flickr

Employ best practices on payment cards – Credit card companies are now shifting from magnetic-strip payment cards to safer, more secure chip card EMV Technology. Are you ready for the shift? Now is the time, you should work with your banks and processors to ensure you’re using the most trusted and validated anti-fraud services. You may also have additional security obligations pursuant to agreements with your bank or processor. You should isolate payment systems from other, less secure programs and don’t use the same computer to process payments and surf the Internet.

Educate employees about cyberthreats – Educate your employers about online threats and how to protect your organization’s data, including safe use of social networking sites.

Protect against viruses, spyware, and other malicious code – Make sure all of your organization’s computers are equipped with antivirus software and antispyware and update regularly. Such software is readily available online from a variety of vendors. All software vendors regularly provide patches and updates to their products to correct security problems and improve functionality. Configure all software to install such updates automatically.

Require employees to use strong passwords and to change them often – Consider implementing multifactor authentication that requires additional information beyond a password to gain entry. Check with your vendors that handle sensitive data, especially financial institutions, to see if they offer multifactor authentication for your account.

Secure your networks – Safeguard your Internet connection by using a firewall and encrypting information.  If you have a Wi-Fi network, make sure it is secure and hidden. To hide your Wi-Fi network, set up your wireless access point or router so it does not broadcast the network name, known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID). Password protect access to the router.

No one can guarantee your safety from a cyberattack, appropriate planning makes a big difference. By using these tips and resources, you can help promote the safety of your employees, customers, and the future success of your small business.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa Tagged with: bank accounts, banks, chip card, credit card, data, EMV, magnetic strip, merchants, payment cards, payment systems, processors

Know Your Business

There are numbers of guidelines issued for accepting card payments, and merchants are expected to understand them all. To avoid issues down the road know a few basic rules in order to keep your business going without being penalized.

There’s a lot of ways to process a credit card: In-store, online, and by phone. There’s also different ways to pay and different brands of cards.

In-store and Card-not-present policies.

In-Store Policies:

• Always verify that the person presenting the card is the cardholder
• Ask for a 2nd ID for comparison
• Cards are non-transferable, cardholder MUST be present for purchase
• Compare the signature on the back of the card with that of the person who presents the card
• Inspect the card to confirm that it’s not visibly altered or mutilated
• Validate the card’s expiration date

Online/Phone Payment Policies: Card-not-present transactions

• Card account number
• Card billing address
• CID (3 digits on back of card OR 4 on the front)
• Card expiration date
• Card member’s home or billing telephone number
• Card member name (as it appears on the Card)

Rules for Visa, MasterCard and Amex that merchants need to know:

• Never store cardholder data on any systems to help minimize the risk of fraud and protect your business from potential chargebacks.

Complying with Federal Laws, State Laws and PCI

• A merchant should be familiar with and abide by Federal Laws regarding accepting credit cards. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the federal law that establishes the foundation of consumer credit rights. This law regulates the collection and use of consumer credit information by merchants.
• Check state laws on the use of consumer credit information and accepting credit cards. Not all states have additional laws that regulate credit card practices, but some (such as California) prohibit merchants from requesting/requiring a customer to provide any personal information (like their address or telephone number) on any form involved with their credit card transaction. So, it is advised that merchants inquire about further information in their particular state.
• The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies processing, storing, or transmitting credit card information uphold a secure environment. These rules essentially apply to any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID). If you are a merchant that accepts credit card payments, you are required to comply with the PCI Data Security Standard, large or small businesses.

EMV Liability Shift Set By Visa and MasterCard as of October 1^st

U.S. banks and credit card companies are now using the EMV (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) technology. The EMV liability shift for fraud carried out in physical stores with counterfeit cards belongs to the merchant if it has not yet upgraded its POS system to accept EMV-enabled chip cards. While issuers absorb losses under card-network rules, that burden will shift to acquirers in cases where the fraud occurs at merchants unprepared for EMV.

It’s good to know every aspect of your business. The above guidelines are part of a business that every merchants should be familiar with. The main reason for these rules is to protect your business and keep your customer’s payment card data safe and secure.

To start accepting more credit cards give us a call now at 888-996-2273. We have the latest terminals that’s EMV/NFC capable.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: amex, card network, card payments, card-not-present, chargebacks, chip cards, credit card, credit card companies, Data Security Standard, EMV, EuroPay, MasterCard, merchants, MID, Payment Card Industry, PCI-DSS, POS system, U.S. banks, visa

Meeting EMV Standard

Rules have changed in regards to swiping credit cards October 1^st, 2015 with the EMV Liability Shift; which may not cause much concern for most consumers, but for merchants.

EMV compliance isn’t a legal requirement. However, if you’re a merchant that accepts credit cards in-person, then you need to find out whether you’re meeting the EMV Standard. The new rule for the liability shift applies October 1^st, regardless of the size or type of business. 

What Is EMV Standard?

EMV stands for EuroPay, MasterCard, and Visa, the three companies that originally created the standard.

The EMV Shift is to provide enhanced security and prevent fraudulent activity with credit cards. Updated equipment is also necessary for processing the new computerized cards, and unfortunately, the responsibility of securing up-to-date hardware falls on the merchant.

Since card evolves more instead of cash in our society, fraud and data breaches is on the increase, and now a common occurrence. Adapting new technology is therefore necessary. A hassle for many merchants, but there are actually benefits from all parties involved in a credit card transaction.

Data shows that fraud decreases dramatically when EMV Standards are implemented In Europe. The region has experienced an 80% reduction in credit card fraud, while the USA has seen a 47% increase by NOT implementing EMV standards.

The new liability rules took effect on October 1st in the US, and any party that has not yet implemented EMV-compliant machines might now be liable for fraud committed with counterfeit chip cards. Note that this liability shift only applies to in-person transactions. Phone order and web order transactions will be dealt with as they always were.

For Merchants, it means you’ll eventually need to get new equipment for processing credit cards payments in-person (unless you’ve already done so not too long ago, as nearly all POS terminals sold in the USA nowadays are EMV compliant). For most business owners, it’s a good idea to implement the new system sooner rather than later.

Step to take as a Merchant Until you get your EMV equipment

• Ask for an official ID from customers whose credit card you process.
• Conduct some research to see which EMV system would be best for your business.
• Start shopping around for new payment processing options that are EMV compliant. 

If you already have a machine that can process chip cards, you’re fully EMV-compliant.

If you don’t accept any in-person payments, then you’re all set.

If you do accept in-person payments and you do not have a chip card machine, chances are you’ll be fine for a little while. But those of you with a high risk of encountering a fake card (if you are a high-volume business with a large average ticket, for instance) should probably upgrade soon.

Fraudsters are going to be taking advantage of businesses that haven’t upgraded so it’s a great time to switch!

Check out NTC’s EMV/NFC Capable Terminal!  

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Point of Sale Tagged with: chip cards, credit card transaction, credit cards, credit cards payments, EMV, EMV equipment, EuroPay, high risk, MasterCard, merchants, nfc, payment processing, POS terminals, visa

EMV Liability Shift and Terminal Upgrade

If you accept credit cards and don’t know what EMV is here is what you need to know.

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. A credit card that had a chip embedded in it is an EMV. EMV Cards have been standard in Europe for more than 10 years because they’re more secure than magnetic stripe cards. Magnetic stripe cards doesn’t change, it has static data, which makes them easy to clone. The chip embedded card makes it more difficult and costly to counterfeit because the data that is transmitted changes each time the card is read. This means less fraud.

Liability Shift rules set by Visa and MasterCard as of October 1st. The liability for fraud carried out in physical stores with counterfeit cards belongs to the merchant if it has not yet upgraded its POS system to accept EMV-enabled chip cards.

• Calculate your risk – Consider the cost of replacing your point-of-sale (POS) terminal vs. potential risk. Whether you replace it now or at a later time, eventually all businesses will have to replace their POS terminals.
• Educate your staff – Educated employees translate to better-educated customers. Merchants can help customers better understand this change and what it means for them.
• Upgrade your POS system – Consider using an EMV compliant credit-card reader on a wireless device for an ultra-secure mobile solution. This is also a chance to upgrade other options, such as near field communication NFC technology, which lets consumers use their mobile devices to make payments at the point of sale.

National Transaction Terminals with EMV and NFC (near field communication) Capability To accept Apple Pay, Android Pay and other NFC Transactions at your business. You will need to adopt point-of-sale devices with NFC/contactless readers. 

National Transaction offer a range of options to suite your specific needs.

If you’re using Virtual Merchant Mobile now called Converge please contact our office at 888-996-2273 to know your options.  

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa Tagged with: Android Pay, Apple Pay, chip cards, contactless readers, Converge, credit cards, EMV, EuroPay, magnetic stripe, MasterCard, merchants, Near Field Communication, nfc, payments, POS, terminal, Virtual Merchant Mobile, visa

Big Moment is Today Are you EMV Ready?

The day the payments industry has pointed to for several years arrives today, a turning point in the U.S.‘s migration to EMV chip-and-PIN cards.

Rules set by Visa and MasterCard as of today, the liability for fraud carried out in physical stores with counterfeit cards belongs to the merchant if it has not yet upgraded its POS system to accept EMV-enabled chip cards. Banks will be issuing EMV Chip Cards.

An enormous change, as everyone learns to deal with the new technology that requires consumers to insert their cards and leave them in the store machines throughout a payment transaction, rather than swipe.

In a recent survey, less than a third of merchants overall have invested in EMV-compliant technology, and one study said 80 percent of small and midsize merchants have not upgraded their systems as of today’s liability shift.

Issuers are claiming to be more prepared than merchants, but according to the Smart Card Alliance, around 200 million chip cards have been issued to U.S. cardholders. That, however, is less than 17 percent of the approximately 1.2 billion payment cards in circulation.

What is clear is that today does not represent the end of the journey. The lack of preparedness at the physical point of sale, however, may be beneficial for card-not-present merchants.

Over the past few months, the mainstream media has awoken to the fact that implementing EMV does not mean fraud will disappear. Fraudsters quickly adapted to the difficulty of counterfeiting cards by attacking Card-Not-Present channels, where a chip has no effect.

In other markets, fraud migrated quite rapidly to card-not-present channels. It is necessary on e-commerce merchants to protect themselves with an array of tools, like device authentication, one-time passwords, randomized PIN pad and biometrics. Fraud mitigation tools like data analytics, address and CVV verification, 3D secure and tokenization. These services should be available from their merchant acquirer processor or gateway.

There should be a gradual reduction in card fraud over the next 12-18 months in spite of the delays in this country’s EMV migration. It’s going to take time for the technology to be adopted.

U.S. Merchants’ overall relative lack of preparedness for EMV may give e-commerce and mobile merchants time they didn’t think they would have to explore the options.

Sophisticated authentication technologies such as biometrics will help increase the security of card transactions. Device-based verification could be easily incorporated in an EMV transaction.

Banks have expressed interest more in using the phone as a biometrics. It’s all going to depend on what is the most convenient way to access your funds. The nice thing about biometrics is it’s meant to enable more convenience and stronger security.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale Tagged with: banks, biometrics, card fraud, card-not-present, chip cards, chip-and-PIN cards, e-commerce, EMV, gateway, merchant acquirer, merchants, mobile merchants, payments industry, point of sale, POS system, processor, tokenization, Visa and MasterCard

Questions to ask to help you decide about terminal upgrade

If you accept credit cards and don’t know what EMV is here is what you need to know.

EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. A credit card that had a chip embedded in it is an EMV. EMV Cards have been standard in Europe for more than 10 years because they’re more secure than magnetic stripe cards. Magnetic stripe cards doesn’t change, it has static data, which makes them easy to clone. The chip embedded card makes it more difficult and costly to counterfeit because the data that is transmitted changes each time the card is read. This means less fraud.

Questions to ask to help you decide about terminal upgrade.

• Calculate your risk – Consider the cost of replacing your point-of-sale (POS) terminal vs. potential risk. Whether you replace it now or at a later time, eventually all businesses will have to replace their POS terminals.
• Educate your staff – Educated employees translate to better-educated customers. Merchants can help customers better understand this change and what it means for them.
• Upgrade your POS system – Consider using an EMV compliant credit-card reader on a wireless device for an ultra-secure mobile solution. This is also a chance to upgrade other options, such as near field communication NFC technology, which lets consumers use their mobile devices to make payments at the point of sale.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: chip, credit card reader, credit cards, data, EMV, emv cards, EuroPay, magnetic stripe cards, MasterCard, merchants, Mobile Devices, Near Field Communication, nfc, payments, point of sale, POS terminal, visa