American Express SafeKey for hotels

Direct from American Express hospitality industry webinar, hotels number one protection from card not present fraud is American Express SafeKey®. SafeKey leverages the global industry standard, 3-D Secure®*, to detect and reduce online fraud by adding an extra layer of security when Card Members pay online.

How to mitigate 3rd party authorization chargeback risk? Merchant best practices:

  • Ensure the cardholder participated in the initial transactions. Safekey is the best method to prove that, making signatures irrelevant.
  • Get written authorization of what expenses the cardholder will allow.
  • Put cardholder name on the folio.
  • Show where cardholder opted in to all policies, including damages, cancellation etc.
  • Authorization must be CARD NOT PRESENT.
  • Use solution that includes cardholder name in the authorization response; retrievable record.

American Express SafeKey

How does Amex SafeKey impact the customer shopping experience? The cardholder may have some or no difference in the checkout experience, based on many factors, including prior online shopping history. The cardholder may be asked authentication question(s) to confirm it’s really the cardholder.

How does Amex SafeKey impact merchants?

  • Fraud liability for “It wasn’t me, I didn’t authorize it” goes away as liability shifts back to the issuer.
  • For business to business, where cardholder billing and shipping address frequently vary, cardholder authentication plays an important role not available with four digit CID security code validation only.
  • At this writing, American Express merchants do not receive a specific interchange discount as may be available with other card brands.

How can merchants adopt the Amex SafeKey service?

  1. Enroll your company on the American Express web site. https://network.americanexpress.com/globalnetwork/safekey/us/en/merchants-acquirers
  2. Receive e-mail from SafeKey Certification Team with your SafeKey ID and next steps.
  3. SafeKey Certification Team gets approval from Acquirer.
  4. Acquirer and SafeKey Certification Team complete required setup.
  5. Activate 3-D Secure on the application. (Ecommerce shopping cart, payment gateway, or ERP.) Both payment gateway and application must support the service.

* 3-D Secure is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association in the United States and other countries.

Want to add American Express SafeKey to your business and get a great third party authorization form solution all included? Contact CenPOS global sales and integrations reseller, Christine Speedy, 954-942-0483 for more information.

10 Most Promising Payment and Card Solution Providers 2019

Who made the top 10 list of of most payment and card solutions providers? The first ten companies to fork out $3000, which 3D Merchant Services declined to pay. The criteria for getting on the top ten list of anything and then to top google search results is usually all about the money, not the product. Here’s an actual offer for how to get on the top ten list, just pay the bucks and you’re in!

Greetings from MyTechMag, a technology magazine which has already proved its strong hold in various industries and technology vertical. Now MyTechMag is all set to explore the Payment industry focusing on the Payment and Card Solution Providers. With great pleasure I would like to communicate that our Editorial team has selected as one among the “10 Most Promising Payment and Card Solution Providers 2019”.

Payments are now evolving at a rapid pace with new providers, new platforms, and new payment tools launching on a near daily basis.The payments industry would be in a transformational state in 2020. The ongoing war with alternative payment channels will intensify and challenges in emerging markets would force the incumbents to take drastic measures.

I was exploring the possibility of participating in this special edition. We offer a one-page profile to all the Top 10 companies. We would be keen to feature a one-page exclusive profile about  in our upcoming Payment and Card edition. The company profile will provide an in-depth perspective of the company’s product offerings, strengths, and unique proposition. The Payment and Card special edition will be sent to 166,000 technology leaders across the industry verticals.

The Branding package is at a cost of $3,000
* would have unlimited digital and prints right for the one-page profile with Senior Executives photo.
* One Full Page color advertisement space in the magazine.
* will also receive the logo of the “10 Most Promising Payment and Card Solution Providers 2019”.
* We would be happy to host all the news from your company on our website.

This is undoubtedly going to optimize your company visibility as it will reach 166,000 senior leaders, and key decision makers across the industry. Kindly go through the same and let me know your thoughts on how you would like to take this opportunity ahead.

I look forward to hearing from you.

When you need to find the best payment processing solution or credit card processing solution, call a professional and have a conversation. How knowledgeable is that person? For web sites, does it have material relevant for your business?

Did you find this web site useful? Call Christine Speedy, PCI Council QIR certified, for all your payment processing solutions needs. Have a knowledgeable professional helping you maximize profits. 954-942-0483, 9-5 ET.

MasterCard and Visa Class Action Suit Update 2019

The U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York has preliminarily approved a proposed settlement of between $5.54 Billion and $6.24 Billion in a class action lawsuit against Mastercard, Visa and member banks. Millions of merchants were sent direct mail solicitations from law firms in 2019, possibly creating confusion about how to process claims.

visa mastercar payment card settlment
Official court notification sample and official settlement web site.

The final approval hearing is November 9, 2019 and if nothing changes, merchants will be able to file their claim through a simple process. Merchants will automatically be notified about the process; at this time, there is nothing to do.

In the interim, if you have any questions, please visit the official settlement website www.paymentcardsettlement.com.

Brighterion and Elavon to Fight Fraud with Artificial Intelligence

Leading AI capabilities deliver more sophisticated and efficient fraud protection

SAN FRANCISCO and ATLANTA, July 09, 2019 – While the global implementation of EMV chip technology has reduced fraud activity for card payments, the payment’s ecosystem is still battling the threat of new and emerging fraud payment schemes online. Brighterion, a Mastercard company, and Elavon, a global payments provider and subsidiary of U.S. Bank, have announced they will work together to integrate Brighterion’s advanced artificial intelligence (AI) platform into Elavon’s network to minimize fraud and manage risk.

“The explosion of ecommerce has been matched with a rise in digital fraud,” said Ajay Bhalla, president, cyber & intelligence at Mastercard. “AI has proven itself critical in managing the complexities of today’s evolving world. We’re pleased to collaborate with Elavon as they take a leadership role in fighting fraud in the industry.”

With the ability to analyze nearly 100 billion transactions annually, Brighterion will enable Elavon to better discover and identify transaction anomalies, which helps mitigate risk and maintain the integrity of Elavon’s global systems.

“The increasing sophistication of fraudsters demands smarter, more nimble and innovative fraud tools that allow us to stay one step ahead,” said Tim Miller, senior vice president, global credit and risk, Elavon. “We look forward to bringing the strength and flexibility of Brighterion’s AI platform to our fight against fraud.”

In addition to Brighterion’s AI capabilities, Mastercard’s AI and machine learning technologies, such as AI Express, provide real-time intelligence across data sources regardless of type, complexity or volume. AI Express helps companies develop a tailored AI model and was designed to help address key business priorities, including anti-money laundering, fraud risk management, cyber security, credit risk prediction and operational efficiencies.

“Banks, processors and large merchants are rapidly adopting advanced machine learning technologies to combat fraud,” said Julie Conroy, research director for Aite Group’s Fraud and AML practice. “Our research shows that these technologies provide substantial lift in fraud detection compared to legacy rules-based systems, while at the same time reducing the false positives that can be so detrimental to the customer experience.”

The companies will work with merchants in the United States, Europe and Latin America to incorporate fraud monitoring into their systems.

About Brighterion, Inc.

Brighterion, a Mastercard company, was founded in 2000 and acquired by Mastercard in 2017. We deliver a leading artificial intelligence and machine learning platform that provides real-time mission critical intelligence from any data source, regardless of type, complexity or volume. Our AI solution secures billions of transactions monthly and is used and trusted by many of the world’s leading organizations and governments in payments, compliance, financial markets, security and defense, healthcare, Internet of Things, marketing and more. Currently we serve 74 out of 100 of the largest U.S. banks and more than 2,000 customers worldwide, analyzing nearly 100 billion transactions annually.

About Elavon

Elavon provides end-to-end payment processing solutions and services to more than 1.3 million customers in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. As the leading provider for airlines and a top five provider in hospitality, healthcare, retail, and public sector/education, Elavon’s innovative payment solutions are designed to solve pain points for businesses from small to enterprise-sized.

EMVCo Launches EMV 3-D Secure 2.2.0 Testing Programme

Confirms that EMV 3-D Secure products support merchant whitelisting functionality and authentication of additional e-commerce payment scenarios.

25 June 2019 – EMVCo has updated the EMV® 3-D Secure (EMV 3DS) Testing Programme which includes test platform and process updates to support the EMV 3DS 2.2.0 Core Specification and EMV 3DS 2.2.0 SDK Specification released in December 2018.
Using the EMV 3DS Test Platform, EMV 3DS product providers can validate that their products support all the enhancements introduced in EMV 3DS 2.2.0, such as the exemptions to Strong Consumer Authentication (SCA) for the European Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Additionally, the test platform will also validate support for FIDO enhancements, and authentication for new payment scenarios, such as mail order and telephone purchase transactions.

“Testing and approving 3DS products using the EMV 3DS Test Platform provides the industry with confidence that 3DS products are aligned with the EMV 3DS specifications to ensure delivery of effective and convenient e-commerce authentication,” comments Karteek Patel, EMVCo Executive Committee Chair. “Our specifications and testing frameworks can’t be static. EMVCo works with industry experts to ensure the 3DS infrastructure supports the latest requirements of e-commerce stakeholders.”


EMVCo’s EMV 3DS Testing Programme, launched in August 2018, has approved more than 100 3DS products to date. This update to the Test Platform references additional features for merchants and issuers to maximise the benefit of the available SCA exemptions, including the ability of a consumer to whitelist a merchant.
EMV 3DS is a messaging protocol that promotes secure, frictionless consumer authentication for card-not-present, e-commerce purchases across channels and connected devices. To learn more about EMV 3DS, please read the FAQ that is available for download from the EMVCo website.