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Visa CEO urges investment in payments security

March 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - Visa USA president and chief executive John Philip Coghlan told an audience of more than 400 business, government and academic representatives that payment security must become a strategic priority for businesses entities that touch payments. He said security measures must be taken to maintain and ensure consumer trust.

"Trust is emerging as one of the critical business issues of the 21st century," he said. "Data security must move out of the back office and into the boardroom. Corporate officers must apply the same rigor to data security as they do to their financial controls."

During a security summit, co-sponsored by Visa USA and Harvard Business School Publishing, Visa addressed measures that can be taken to better protect cardholders. Five panels were assembled to cover topics related to securing customer trust, recovering from data compromises, the balance between technology and convenience, fighting data crimes from a global perspective, and the role government plays in securing cardholder information.

"Our job is to make sure that trust is protected. And achieving that goal requires unity of purpose. We must work together," Coghlan said.

Results from a Javelin Strategy & Research poll, released March 8, show that 85 percent of consumers would likely increase their shopping at stores they knew were leaders in devoting resources and technology to account-data security.

"Companies that adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard significantly reduce their vulnerability to a compromise," Coghlan said. "In fact, the majority of compromises stem from a consistent set of practices that include the storage of prohibited data and using vulnerable payment applications."

Over the course of the last year, PCI compliance among Visa's largest merchants doubled, Coghlan said, from less than 15 percent to more than one-third.

In 2006 Visa launched the PCI Compliance Acceleration Program, a $20 million program that combines incentives and penalties for industry compliance levels.

As part of that program, Visa says it's adopting a new policy related to interchange fees. Visa's best interchange rates will only be available to merchants, through their acquirers, if they validate PCI compliance by Sept. 30, 2007. The impact to tiered merchants varies from $250,000 to more than $20 million, depending on the merchant's qualifying Visa volume.