Tackling Payments Mandates Together
5 min read.
Author: Moneris
While payments compliance mandates can seem complex and intimidating at first, they aren't something to be afraid of. Payments mandates reflect the payment landscape, encouraging best practices and providing insight into where the world of payments is headed in the future. But as technology and payments adapt over time, so do the rules and regulations that guide these systems. As parking operators, when it comes to mandate changes that may impact how you process transactions, your payments provider and technology partners are there to support you and answer any questions you may have.
What are Compliance Mandates?
Compliance mandates are rules and regulations imposed by governing bodies that require organizations or businesses to follow specific practices and guidelines. In the payments space, compliance mandates dictate decisions on various activities related to payment acceptance and facilitation, card brand operations, transactions, solutions, and more. One example of a compliance mandate is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which encompasses 12 data security requirements that ensure the protection of card account data within the payments industry framework.
As payment systems have become more complex over time, mandates have evolved to keep up with these changes – especially with the introduction of EMVs (payments that use a chip and PIN system rather than a magnetic stripe to process transactions). Key mandates that have impacted payment processing systems over the last 15 years include the shift in fraud liability, encouraging merchants to move away from magnetic stripe to more secure forms of acceptance like chip and PIN and contactless.
How Do Compliance Mandates Impact Parking Operations?
As a parking operator, compliance with payments mandates isn't just a check box item, it can also help your business keep up with consumer trends. Ensuring your payment solutions are up to date and compliant can help you avoid consequences that may impact your ability to accept payments. These risks can include paying non-compliance fees, higher monthly rates, the potential increase of fraud liability and theft, and the impact of failing to meet PCI requirements.
For example, pre-pandemic we saw contactless transactions approaching half of all transaction, at 49% in March of 2019. Today, contactless transactions now account for more than 70% of all transactions, and this trend continues to rise, citing the importance of adopting compliant terminals to keep up with industry trends. So, ensuring your parking payment solutions offer secure acceptance of contactless transactions is one way of adhering to compliance standards, while giving your customers a consistent and seamless checkout experience based on their preferred way to pay.
Are there any mandates I should be aware of?
One mandate to keep in mind is the Interac key management migration, which requires payment terminals to support Interac’s new standard for making sure data is secure when being transmitted from the payment terminal to the host. As part of this standard, all terminals will need to migrate from single-length keys to double-length keys, helping make the transmission of payment data more secure.
The migration has been underway for some time. As of November 1, 2022, all newly deployed terminals were required to support the new mandate, meaning as terminals were upgraded, they naturally became compliant. For all remaining terminals, the final date is November 1, 2025, which requires not only new, but also existing terminals to become compliant as well. To help ensure your terminals are compliant, your payment processor or technology partner will reach out and provide the support you need to make sure your payment setup is up to date.
What Are the Benefits of Using Compliant Payment Processing Solutions?
With more legacy terminals becoming non-compliant over time, upgrading and maintaining your payment solutions are a huge benefit to your payment processing capabilities, as advancements in payment technology have simplified integration and addressed key gaps in current payment processes. These include more attention towards effective device repair and management, progressive fraud management (especially with the rise of ecommerce), fraud prevention through solutions like 3D Secure, and the protection of merchant and customer data. Ensuring you have the latest payment technology will minimize risk, and help you save on time and money.
The key takeaway, your payments provider can do more than just facilitate payments. As a commerce company, Moneris can also be your partner when it comes to understanding payments mandates, as well as helping you keep up with payment trends that shape the way your business operates.