Payment Card Data Security Report: Combating Breaches, Perfecting EMV, and Safeguarding Mobile Payments

Data breaches, EMV, and mobile payments are key issues affecting the security of payment card data, and managing each will require overcoming formidable challenges. Criminals are seizing on lax data security to compromise card data at an alarming rate, placing consumers and financial institutions at odds with merchants over the aftermath. Adoption of EMV could dramatically change the nature of card fraud in the United States, and the rollout may also portend improved data security among merchants. Unfortunately recent legislation is creating more questions than answers for everyone with a stake in EMV, and that is affecting its deployment. A double threat, mobile wallets are introducing new players to the payments world, and their handling of the payment experience and data security is prompting a serious response from the old guard of card brands and financial institutions.

Primary Questions:

• What is the connection between breaches of payment card data and card fraud?
• How does breach-related fraud affect the relationship among retailers, financial institutions, and consumers?
• What actions are consumers and financial institutions taking in response to breaches in the retail industry?
• What are the impediments to the rollout of EMV, and how do they influence the security of card data?
• How are mobile wallets affecting the relationship between the financial industry and consumers?
• What security issues do payment cards face because of mobile wallets?
• How is the financial industry responding to the threats posed by mobile wallets?

Consumer data in this report is based on information gathered from Javelin surveys conducted in 2012 and 2013. 

• A random‐sample panel of 5,249 respondents in an October 2012 online survey. 
• A random‐sample panel of 3,285 respondents in a July, 2013 online survey.