Over 30 million cases of fraud occur every year in America. This outrageous number has led to the creation of bills designed to combat fraud, but none of the bills mention improvements to the U.S. payment security system – thus leaving Americans susceptible to fraud. Although the enactment of chip verification is a step in the right direction, many policymakers say that chip verification is not enough to fight resourceful fraudsters.
A number of respected policymakers support the enactment of chip and PIN like – Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia. But the case for chip and PIN has fallen on deaf ears, especially on the ears of the banks that would supply the technology. Instead financial institutions have started to issue chip-only cards that don’t have the PIN component, meaning that cards are still relying on outdated and easily forged signatures.
The cybersecurity community has called for increased security for consumer information for years. They believe the U.S.’s late adoption of EMV standards has jeopardized American identities. Unfortunately, retailers and merchants are spending billions in dollars to upgrade to PIN and signature when chip-only cards have proven to be inadequate without a PIN.
Consumers and merchants simply can’t afford to not be fully protected, especially merchants that do high volume transactions like in the hospitality industry. In the wake of the Hilton properties security breach, banks and merchants should be on board with chip and PIN.
A high volume of cardholder data passes through hotels every day. There are simply too many touch-points for credit cards in the hotel industry. As a result, a major footprint of sensitive consumer data is formed. The Federal Reserve notes that chip and PIN would increase payment security by an amazing 700 percent. So as Congress debates issues like cybersecurity, they should discuss credit card security improvements too. This will be in the best interest of the American people and American merchants.
Protecting consumers’ privacy and their identity will keep their confidence in the economic system and increase spending. To process EMV chipped cards, merchants must have EMV enabled POS systems. Today, Hoteliers must have their payment processes monitored at every turn. eMerchantBroker.com is a payment processor experienced in hotel credit card processing. Our agents will have your merchant account up and running in no time.