New Group Seeks Safe Debit Payments Online And for Mobile

The growth of online commerce in recent years has given rise to a number of payments-related trade groups, not to mention the PCI Security Standards Council, the oversight body of the Payment Card Industry data-security standard. Now a new one has come onto the scene, one is dedicated to furthering the cause of secure debit transactions on the Web and in mobile commerce. Announced last week, the Secure Remote Payment Council, or SRPc, is headed by board chairperson Dennis Lynch, former chief executive of the NYCE electronic funds transfer network, and Paul Tomasofsky, president and executive director. Tomasofsky, also a former NYCE executive and president of Montvale, N.J.-based Two Sparrows Consulting LLC, will handle the council's day-to-day activities. The group will concern itself with fraud reduction and related security matters involving debit, Tomasofsky tells Digital Transactions News. “This is all about being able having a payment that is safe and secure and non-reputable,” he says. “It is all debit related.” That's debit in a broad sense, however, not just PIN- or signature-based debit cards. The SRPc will be primarily a research and education group, according to Tomasofsky. Its studies, Webinars, and audio conferences could investigate not only debit cards, but also automated clearing house issues or other payment forms that draw on demand-deposit accounts, he says. While most trade groups draw from a narrow list of like companies, SRPc is opening its membership to a wide range of debit-industry payments players, including EFT networks, merchant and issuer processors, financial institutions, merchants, the general-purpose card networks, alternatives such as PayPal Inc., and tech companies. SRPc's inaugural board of directors includes representatives from Fiserv Inc.'s Accel/Exchange network, CardinalCommerce Corp., Chase Paymentech Solutions, Heartland Payment Systems Inc., MagTek Inc., the Merchant Advisory Group, the Shazam Inc. EFT network, and the regional ACH association SWACHA. The board also includes Ron Congemi, former chief executive of First Data Debit Services, as well as the Pulse and Star EFT networks, SafetyPay, and Total System Services Inc. “We want to have a very broad membership,” says Tomasofsky. “They're all going to be stakeholders.” SRPc is the brainchild of Paul Turgeon, formerly of NYCE and First Data and president of Payments & Processing Consultants Inc. Turgeon promoted NYCE's SafeDebit online PIN-debit product a decade ago, but it got a cold reception. According to Tomasofsky, Turgeon and other debit veterans last year said it was time to address security and other issues holding back debit on the Internet and in mobile commerce, where credit cards and the payment alternatives dominate. “Paul continued to have that bug,” says Tomasofsky. The SRPc appointed Turgeon as special advisor. The Council will form work groups to investigate issues. Possible early topics for research include surveys of consumers about the extent of their use of debit cards for electronic commerce, and, similarly, what financial institutions are doing or not doing to encourage remote debit transactions?those on the Web or mobile devices. Tomasofsky adds that while SRPc is not a technical standards-setting body, it may provide input to the PCI Council, which updates the PCI standards every two years. “The key is what are some of the roadblocks that are preventing more [debit] e-commerce, or creating loss on the consumer or merchant side,” he says. SRPc annual corporate memberships cost $20,000 and allow a company full access to the group's events and possibly chair a work group. Limited memberships cost $2,500. Discounts are available on three-year memberships. The SRPc's Web site is secureremotepaymentcouncil.org/. The SRPc might be launching just as online debit finally is building a head of steam. Processor Merchant e-Solutions Inc., which is now actively marketing online PIN debit to both existing and prospective e-commerce merchants, credits the deep recession with helping to drive merchant interest in the service. The company uses the PaySecure system from Acculynk Inc., a software vendor working with EFT networks to bring PIN-debit to the Web (Digital Transactions News, Jan. 19).