Visa has scored Nigeria high on card payment systems’ security with 99% cards in the country running on the globally accepted EMV cards standard.
EMV is global acknowledged standard for credit and debit payment cards based on chip card technology, taking its name from the card schemes Europay, MasterCard, and Visa – the original card schemes that developed it.
According to Mr. Ade Ashaye, general manager, Visa West Africa, merchants and issuers who comply with EMV standards benefit from the reduction of potential losses from fraudulent transactions.
He stressed that data are key resources card payment industry can leverage to build profiles or defense against the surging fraud apparatuses.
Ashaye said that by implementing critical technological processes, Visa has reduced fraud rates, in the United Sates, for instance, to less than six cents per $100 transactions.
Today, Visa has over 2.5 billion cards operated across the globe with tens of millions of acceptance locally in 200 countries and territories in 2.4 million automated teller machines (ATMs).
“By upgrading their payment terminals,” he said, “business owners can significantly reduce the threat of card fraud. The aim of the payment industry is to accelerate this evolution, and government regulation has helped speed the process along.
“Today’s complex global payment systems are immersed in vast amounts of data, which is being used to develop an additional layer of defence that detects fraudulent transactions before they take place. Data (or Big Data) is one of the strongest resources that a card payment network can leverage, and additional layers of defence can be built by creating a profile of potential risks and a general risk assessment.
“Using this data to develop security measures is one way for companies to take advantage of their existing network systems. Predictive fraud analytics tools help payments works stay one step ahead by using advanced fraud monitoring and detection systems.
“The tool performs real-time correlation searches and anomaly detection, which means it can detect fraud as it happens and blocks the malicious transaction right there and then. By regularly auditing risks and monitoring problem areas, the tool becomes more efficient and builds a stronger and more accurate profile of fraudulent activity.
“Yet overall, it is important to remember the difference between perception and reality when it comes to fraud in the card payments industry. While there are still apprehensions from consumers about fraud, the rate of fraud has been on a steady decline over the past few years.
“At Visa, our global fraud rate is less than 6 cents per $100 transacted. Undoubtedly, the industry has made great strides towards a safer payments system along with the cooperation of merchants and governments. However, it is a continuous process, as innovations keep the momentum toward more cashless transactions, so security measures must keep up with pace and combat fraud proactively.
Also speaking, Nita Omanga, director, Risk Services, Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), said that Visa believes protection of cards’ data should focus on four main pillars, as means to ensure users experience hitch-free transactions.
These measures, she said, include to devalue the data; protecting the card through encryption and PCI; harnessing the data and empowerment of the consumer.
“Data can be devalued through tokenization and EMV; that is making data on a card (when stolen) very insufficient for the fraudster to use or compromise the system; when you protect the card through payment card industry (PCI) standard, it grants the processes safer nets, because the standards are sure ways of improved security.
“We also focus on harnessing data through risk-based authentication, geolocation and breach responses. Banks have used these processes to reduce cross-border security breaches, as you are alerted almost instantaneously as your card is being used to make transactions. Depending on how you want the card configured, but the instant alerts are far better than waiting till month end before you are shown your banking statement (report) and such is a way to empowering the customers, through transaction alerts and spend controls. Visa would always advice that banks should allow the customers dictate how they want be used for either face-to-face transactions, online or overseas purchases”.
She said that empowering the customer is imperative for cards to ‘behave’ to the satisfaction of the users.
Omanga added that collaboration between the banks and the customers is key to making data ‘useless’ whenever possible; reduce and protect vulnerable data in systems and harnessing data to prevent fraud.
