Security Concerns Will Dominate Payments Space In 2015

By Thierry Denis, President, Ingenico Group North America

Ingenico Group works closely with merchants of all sizes in the U.S., and one of the most frequent questions we get from reseller and managed services partners is, “What is the key concern among your merchant customers that we need to address?”

Without a doubt, that key concern is preventing breaches and protecting consumers’ card data.

There were a multitude of large, well-publicized card data breaches in 2014. Some of that may be the natural consequence of the U.S. being the last developed country in the world relying on mag stripe technology. With the impending October 2015 EMV liability shift coming, at long last U.S. merchants are upgrading their payment infrastructure for chip cards, and that may help stem the tide of card reproduction fraud. But merchants are still very concerned, and are looking to ensure that they’re doing everything they can to protect customers’ data and their own reputations.

Stage Stores is one such merchant. This leading neighborhood retailer delivers brand-name family apparel in 40 states across the U.S. The company has implemented point-to-point encryption (P2PE) for its almost 900 stores. Now customers shopping at Stage Stores’ five brands (Bealls, Goody’s, Palais Royal, Peebles and Stage) will conduct their payment transactions on Ingenico terminals that encrypt from the moment the transaction enters the terminal. Stage Stores CIO Steven Hunter says that securing customers’ information is the company’s #1 priority in 2015.

Please log in or register below to read the full article.