In reply to Peter Grafton.

Thank you Peter. I am sorry to hear about your issues with credit card compromises. I have dealt with it myself as a consumer and it certainly can be a headache to get that straightened out!

I am thankful that as a consumer in the U.S. I am protected from liability for unauthorized credit card transactions by a combination of federal law and the card issuer policy. So financial institutions and merchants assume responsibility for most of the money lost as a result of fraud. I looked it up out of curiosity and card issuers bore a 72% share of fraudulent losses in 2015 and merchants and ATM acquirers assumed the other 28% of liability, according to the Nilson Report, October 2016.

The reason that all of the merchants you shop with converted their card payment processing devices at the checkout lines to "chip card " or EMV reader technology in the last few years, and the card issuers sent you new "chip"/ EMV cards, is due to a change in this liability. Although other parts of the world had already been using this chip technology for years, in the US we were slow to convert.

What finally prompted the changeover was a date late last year wherein responsibility for fraudulent transactions shift to the merchant - your local gas station or grocery store - if the new EMV technology is not used for additional security, instead of the card issuer - Visa or Mastercard for example. No change for the consumer except a new card and hopefully better security.

Payment solutions is a really interesting and quickly evolving line of business.