Discussing the challenges of payment security in Europe; Jeremy King, Vice President, Regional Head of Europe for the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) and James Vale, Head of Payment Security Products & SME PCI DSS Compliance Programme at Barclaycard Payments. Some interesting factoids tossed out but article seems to be more about where payments are, without exposition of details (like newly increased limits). They were not kind to cash. — From PCI SSC Blog
Excerpts:
- One of the primary changes we saw during the pandemic was the sudden and sharp decline in the use of cash as a payment method, replaced by increased card use. In the UK alone the lockdown announcement on the 23rd March 2020 resulted in an immediate 4% drop in the value of ATM withdrawals (Bank of England statistics).
- As stores closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the pivot from face to face transactions to ecommerce and Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) was dramatic.
- The reliance on footfall traffic was over. According to the Office of National Statistics ecommerce payments grew by 49% in 2020 over the previous year, with the online food sector seeing the largest growth at 79.3%.
- Those who were previously reliant on cash were suddenly forced to use debit and credit cards for payments. This behavioral shift is one that will not so easily be reversed, and so card payments should continue to rise. The increased contactless limit in the UK to £100 will help accelerate this trend.
- There are so many third parties involved now it’s tough for merchants to keep up and understand which of their third parties is responsible for what, and how they connect in to and support their environment.
- Pitch for some training and orientation course
- It will be interesting to see what the £100 limit in the UK does to contactless payment usage, as now you’re able to fill your car up with fuel, or do a weekly family shop and have this covered, rather than have to manually insert your card and key in your PIN number.
- More and more payment methods will become available, effectively removing the Primary Account Number (PAN) from the equation through token usage.
- Useful links
- https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/help-and-support/accepting-payments/security-help/pci-dss
- https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/best_practices_securing_ecommerce.pdf?agreement=true&time=1635412425331