News

Restaurant group applauds President Obama's payment security executive order

October 20, 2014

On Friday, President Obama signed an executive order aimed at enhancing security measures for federal credit cards. He also urged retailers and banks to do the same in the fight against identity fraud.

The order will add microchips and PIN numbers to government credit cards and debit cards beginning in January. The move comes as many retail and restaurant companies, including Dairy Queen and Jimmy John's, have experienced data breaches.

The White House said that Home Depot, Target, Walgreen (and Wal-Mart Stores will add secure chip and PIN-compatible card terminals in all their stores by January, according to Reuters.

The National Restaurant Association and National Retail Federation both applauded the executive order.

"We are pleased the Administration is taking the step to push for more robust payment technologies such as chip and PIN, which have been used in other parts of the world for some time," NRA EVP Scott DeFife said in a news release. "It is critical that the nation makes progress in implementing better technologies and security practices as we address the unprecedented level of attacks on consumer and business data."

He said the restaurant industry will continuing working with the White House at an upcoming summit on cybersecurity and consumer protection, and will focus on other issues on payment security, such as encryption and tokenization.

Also on Friday, the Payments Security Task Force released a forecast of participating acquirers who estimated that at least 47 percent of US merchant terminals will be enabled for EMV chip technology by the end of 2015. The estimates are based on forecasts provided by acquirers representing approximately 80 percent of US purchase volume.

Organizations participating in the forecast include First Data, Bank of America Merchant Services, Citi, Chase Paymentech, Vantiv, Elavon, Wells Fargo and Global Payments.

"Retailers, issuers, acquirers and others have addressed consumer concerns head-on and have begun to make the investments to further enhance the security of their payments. We will continue to work to deliver the same levels of security both in-store and online," said Chris McWilton, president, North American Markets, MasterCard.