New Partnership Shows Progress on Cybersecurity

Today, the Merchant and Financial Services Cybersecurity Partnership announced the operating structure for the group and released a video featuring Sandy Kennedy, President of the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), and Governor Tim Pawlenty, President and CEO of the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR), discussing the priorities for the partnership and the progress the group has made. Kennedy and Pawlenty, Co-Chairs of the Partnership, recently formed and led the first meeting of the Partnership’s Advisory Council.

During the meeting, the group agreed on the fundamentals of the Partnership, including the mission, goals and the structure for how the Partnership will operate going forward.   

“We are focused on delivering substantial progress on the issues that matter most to enhance security across the payments system and protecting our customers from cyber threats. With both merchant and financial industries around one table, we were able to have a productive conversation and I’m confident this Partnership will produce results,” said Sandy Kennedy, President of RILA.

“Protecting consumers from cyber criminals is the ultimate goal of the Partnership and robust collaboration between merchants and financial institutions is critical to accomplish that goal,” said Tim Pawlenty, CEO of FSR. “We all face a common enemy and the time to act is now.”

The Partnership has reached consensus on how it will operate to improve overall security across the payments ecosystem, bolster consumer confidence in the security of their payment data, and innovate the technology systems used to process payments. The Partnership will consist of an Advisory Committee made up of the top executives from each of the participating trade associations and co-chaired by Pawlenty and Kennedy. The Advisory Committee will provide oversight and council to the Partnership and oversee the work of five working groups.

Participants in the working groups will be comprised of an equal number of merchant and financial services subject matter experts from member companies of the participating trade associations in the Partnership. The five working groups are:

1. Threat Information Sharing

Advance information sharing of cyber threats and vulnerabilities within and between the retail and financial services industries to enhance efforts to identify, thwart and defend against attacks.

2. Cybersecurity Risk Mitigation

Facilitate discussions with key stakeholders in the payments ecosystem to educate broadly on successful practices for cybersecurity and cyber risk mitigation.

3. Advanced Card Present Security Technology

Identify needs for technological innovation in the card present payments ecosystem, and promote such innovation to both enhance and protect the security of the data and to render stolen data useless to attackers.

4. Card Not Present and Mobile Security

Identify and collaborate on the development and implementation of methods to enhance payment security in the mobile and card-not-present environments.

5. Cybersecurity & Data Breach Notification

Identify and support legislative approaches necessary to enhance cybersecurity efforts and rationalize data breach notification standards

Customer payments occur in an ecosystem of retailers, banks, card companies, processors, security and technology vendors and others.  Cyber threats are most effectively thwarted when the ecosystem works together collaboratively, and each stakeholder does all it can to reasonably ensure the defenses of their internal systems are as robust and resilient as possible. The Advisory Council is confident that the agreed upon Partnership structure will drive stakeholders to achieve the Partnership goals for the benefit of customers.

The Associations participating in the Partnership include: American Bankers Association, American Hotel and Lodging Association, The Clearing House, Consumer Bankers Association, Electronic Transactions Association, Financial Services Forum, Financial Services Roundtable, Food Marketing Institute, Independent Community Bankers of America, International Council of Shopping Centers, International Franchise Association, Merchant Advisory Group, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, National Association of Convenience Stores, National Grocers Association, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation, and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

The video can be viewed here.

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Financial Services Roundtable represents the leading integrated financial services companies providing banking, insurance, payment and investment products and services to the American consumer. Member companies participate through the Chief Executive Officer and other senior executives nominated by the CEO. Roundtable member companies provide fuel for America's economic engine, accounting directly for $92.7 trillion in managed assets, $1.2 trillion in revenue, and 2.3 million jobs. Learn more at FSRoundtable.org.

RILA is the trade association of the world’s largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.  

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