Visa holds its annual Security Summit in Dubai on June 14

Visa Inc, the world’s largest retail electronic payments network, is to hold its annual Security Summit for the Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region in Dubai on June 14 and 15 2011. Visa’s Security Summit events are well-established fixtures in the global payment system security calendar, attended by hundreds of card industry and payment security professionals from across the world who come to share information and best practice around some of the key issues facing the industry today.

The Security Summit’s purpose is to promote is to share knowledge and highlight topics that will assist the payment industry in making electronic payment the most secure way to purchase goods and services – at the point-of-sale and on-line. The theme of this year’s summit – The Dynamic Future of Business – reflects the increasing emphasis on the use of dynamic data to protect against security threats – chip cards at the point of sale and one-time-passcodes when shopping online. The move to chip across APCEMEA has coincided with a marked fall in  counterfeit fraud, and where there is Verified-by-Visa (online authentication) with dynamic passcodes, online security is measurably enhanced.

This year’s summit will see experts from Visa and other industry players gathering to address topics such as ecommerce and mobile commerce, contactless payments, deceptive marketing and brand protection, migration to dynamic data and working as an industry to hold the line against fraud. The reality is that effective fraud prevention techniques benefit all stakeholders in the following ways: saving money, time and effort; delivering a better ‘experience’; bringing convenience and security to shopping – online and offline; and making electronic payments the best way to pay.

A survey of consumer attitudes towards payment security commissioned by Visa in 2010 across the UAE found that despite generally low levels of personal experience of card security issues, over a third (37%) are ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ concerned about card payment fraud. The research showed consumer confidence in Chip and PIN verification methods, and that consumers are less likely to take positive action themselves, with only 34% changing password/PINs regularly, therefore relying on industry to take the lead in delivering security innovations.

Michael E Smith, Visa Head of Risk for Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that the Visa Security Summit was a real opportunity to share best practice, highlight innovation and new developments and turn the spotlight on the security agenda. “We continue to see a global shift from cash and check to some form of electronic payment – electronic payment is convenient, simple and everywhere. The security people feel when making a payment with Visa, however, is a fundamental part of the whole experience, and this is why the Visa Security Summit is such an important event.”