ETA Hosts Executive Payments Fly-In in Washington, DC

September 17, 2015 – Today, ETA hosted the Payments Fly-In on Capitol Hill. We were pleased to welcome over 70 industry leaders, who went on to meet with Members of Congress and federal regulators, including the CFPB, Federal Reserve and Treasury, to discuss issues facing the industry. This Fly-In was a unique opportunity for our members to speak directly to lawmakers and provide insight into how the payments industry drives the U.S. economy.

“The ETA Executive Payments Fly-In brings industry leaders to Washington as the voice of the payments industry,” said Jason Oxman, ETA CEO. “ETA is excited to bring our members face to face with members of Congress and regulators to engage in frank discussion about our industry, which enables $5 trillion in electronic transactions for merchants and consumers in the U.S. each year.”

The underlying theme of the day was simple: security. Member companies educated legislators and regulators about everything they are doing to secure consumer data – including EMV, tokenization, and encryption. Our members also discussed the vital importance of cyber-sharing. With cyber attacks against private industry and the U.S. government growing in frequency and complexity, the need for business and the federal government to share  information about cyber threats is critical.  However, current anti-trust and privacy laws prohibit ETA members from sharing such information with the federal government.   To remedy this, a number of information sharing bills have been introduced in both chambers of Congress. ETA strongly supports creating a legal safe harbor to allow our members to voluntarily share targeted cyber threat indicators (CTI) with the government. Our members helped convince legislators and regulators that bills like the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 (CISA) are crucial components of a robust federal data security policy.

Our members also educated policymakers about the need for a uniform data breach notification law. Several recent high-profile data breaches have highlighted the fact that, when it comes to notifying customers after an incident, victimized businesses are forced to comply with a patchwork of 47 different state laws governing if, when, and how customers are to be notified.  To remedy the problem of confusing and sometimes contradictory state laws, Members of Congress began working on legislation that would create one national standard for ETA members to follow in the event they were required to notify their customers about a data breach. To be truly effective, this standard would preempt state laws.

By the end of the day, our Fly-In participants had met with 40 policymakers: Members of Congress and their staff from both sides of the aisle, and federal regulators. They met with members of the newly formed House and Senate Payments Caucuses. The House Congressional Payments Technology Caucus and the Senate Payments Innovation Caucus were formed to explore the new and innovative technologies in the payments industry, as well as answer questions about data security, unbanked users’ access to electronic payments, and more. Senator David Perdue (R-GA), a member of the Senate Caucus, addressed the attendees at lunch.

“Having a voice in politics is crucial for businesses of all sizes”, said Scott Talbott, ETA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs. “At a time of unprecedented change in the payments industry, including mobile payments and other new technologies, ETA’s government relations efforts are enormously important to advance our industry.”

“ETA member companies continue to drive payments technology innovation,” said Greg Cohen, President of iPayment and ETA’s President-Elect. “We are grateful that members of Congress and regulators are interested in and excited about the secure and convenient payments advancements that we are offering American consumers and merchants.”

The ETA Executive Payments Fly-In was the latest in ETA’s series of policy events advancing the payments technology industry. Upcoming events include Chip Card 101 on October 1 in Washington, DC. Follow us on Twitter for more events and ETA news, as well as the latest updates from the payments industry.