President Obama today announced measures to ensure more secure transactions, which the White House has dubbed the BuySecure Initiative. The President endorsed chip and pin technology in a speech at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying that the UK saw a 70 percent reduction in credit card fraud after its adoption, and plans to apply the technology at the federal level to government credit cards and debit cards, and upgrade payment terminals at U.S. facilities to accept the new cards.
But the technology isn’t really new. Some form of chip technology has been used abroad for decades, while the U.S. continued to rely on magnetic stripe cards, which are easier to counterfeit. Chip cards store payment data within a microprocessor chip, and each transaction creates unique data which cannot be used for future transactions. They’re difficult to counterfeit, and definitely safer and more secure than what most Americans have been using–though as mobile payment options grow, you have to wonder how much longer chip and pin will be relevant.
So it looks like the Federal government is getting on board with more secure transactions. The White House also mentions that companies are joining this “national effort to improve transaction security” — stores like Target and Home Depot (both victims of data security breaches within the past year), as well as Wal-Mart and Walgreens. These retailers will roll out secure chip and pin card terminals in stores by January.
But these stores already committed to chip and pin, along with many major banks. After October 2015, the company that has the outdated magnetic stripe technology — the retailer or the bank — will be the one holding the bag if there’s a data breach. (I wrote about this in our 2nd quarter 2014 issue of Bank Director magazine, available here. Registration may be required.) Target stepped up its efforts after its infamous data breach late last year, and already planned a roughly $100 million investment in chip card readers at all its U.S. stores by the first quarter of 2015.
The White House also announced that “Citi, in partnership with FICO, will begin making credit scores available for free to its consumer card customers updated monthly online — joining the over 70 million Americans who already have access to this feature at other nationwide banks and card issuers.” (Emphasis my own). Again, no real news here: Credit scores are often included as checking account add-ons.
President Obama’s goal to protect Americans from identity and data theft is laudable. But I just don’t feel that much was accomplished today.
Heart of the Matter 