Visa and MasterCard Form Payment System Security Group

Visa and MasterCard are partnering to create a new group that will focus on improving payment system security. The group will include banks, credit unions and retailers, and initially focus on adoption of EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa)-compliant card technology in the U.S. in advance of the October 2015 liability deadline. The group will also study tokenization — the replacement of customer account numbers with unique digital payment codes. "The recent high-profile breaches have served as a catalyst for much needed collaboration between the retail and financial services industry on the issue of payment security," said Ryan McInerney, president of Visa.