ETA Statement Regarding The House Committee on Small Business Hearing, The EMV Deadline and What it Means for Small Businesses: Part II

The transition to EMV or chip cards is our first security priority for small businesses and their customers because EMV addresses the most common form of in-store fraud — counterfeit credit cards. Upgrading to EMV-ready point of sale terminals is the best way for small business owners to protect themselves and their customers from fraud. As ETA testified before the Small Business Committee at its first EMV hearing, we are working in partnership with our merchant customers to deploy chip card readers and upgrade point of sale systems.

Cyber-breaches hit a record high in 2014 with reported incidents jumping 28% over the previous year. The payments industry is deploying a multi-layered defense that includes EMV to answer the threat. We’re also deploying tokenization, which replaces account information with single-use tokens that cannot be intercepted, and end-to-end encryption technology, so retailers can secure all points of entry into systems that store’s financial information. Together with next generation biometrics, these new tools will help wipe out fraud.Jason Oxman, ETA CEO