Transaction Trends

PJ Hoffman

On February 6^th, ETA sent a letter to express our opposition to New Mexico H.B. 15, The Data Breach Notification Act. New Mexico H.B. 15 represents an additional hurdle in building a national uniform data breach notification framework. If enacted, this bill would hamper the ability of businesses to provide timely information while unnecessarily hampering critical business operations. The proposed bill includes an unreasonably short window of 10 days for notifying each merchant services provider for breaches of credit card or debit card numbers. If signed into law, this bill would impose a timeline much shorter and inconsistent with many other state requirements that businesses must already comply with. Consumers and businesses are best served when they have a common and consistent expectation of breach procedures, and company time and resources can be devoted to innovative security solutions to protect against new threats.

Data security & breach notification legislation at both the federal level and the state level is an important issue for the continued growth of the payments industry. Delivery of proper notification to affected individuals when data is compromised is vitally important for both businesses and consumers. ETA believes in the importance of a uniform national standard for breach notification. In order to build the most meaningful and effective data breach solution, it is imperative to tackle this issue with a clear federal standard rather than a patchwork of state laws. Currently, disparate laws in 47 states plus District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, frustrate efficient and uniform breach notification to consumers.

As the trade association of the payments industry, ETA stands ready to assist in efforts to ensure that consumers and merchants continue to benefit from the safety and security of our nation’s payments systems. During the last few Congresses, bipartisan bills have been introduced in both bodies of Congress to create a uniform national standard for data breach notification.  ETA has supported these bills and looks forward to working with the 115^th Congress to advance similar legislation.

Click here to access the letter.

PJ Hoffman is the Director of Regulatory Affairs at ETA. He can reached at [email protected].