Armed with a secured infrastructure, Banks are able to compete in areas or markets where they have not ventured before such as ‘high-risk’ merchants that attract higher Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) thus increasing merchant acquiring revenue. Coupled with the right marketing program, Banks are also able to gain greater consumer confidence thus encouraging consumer spending while at the same time lowering their operating costs through lower charge-backs and riding on the Card Associations (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.) liability-shift policies.

Even though one of the key objectives of EMV was to curb the alarming rise of card and payment frauds, unfortunately, many do not realize that this objective is hampered by the disparate EMV adoption datelines worldwide. Lured into a false sense of security in thinking that EMV is the silver bullet for tackling all types of fraud, many Banks are unaware that the payment network continues to remain the most susceptible and vulnerable to security threats and fraud risks - especially line-tapping or wire-tapping fraud. Without the proper security mechanism in place, more advanced level of fraud such as Host-spoofing (a ‘fake’ host is inserted in the payment network giving false responses) could also occur.

For further information about GHL Systems and other products and solutions, please email us at int.sales@ghl.com (International) or my.sales@ghl.com (Malaysia).

The solution then is to implement a Line Encryption solution. This is where Malaysia’s Bank Negara (the Central Bank of Malaysia) has taken a pro-active approach which is also the first nation in the world to mandate that all acquirers put in place a line-encryption solution to protect sensitive card holders’ information as the payment transaction is sent across the network. Together with industry players ranging from Banks, Vendors, Card associations and independent consultants, a comprehensive working paper was drafted which served as the foundation to implement a line-encryption solution.