Global payments company, Visa (NYSE:V) hosted its Security Summit for Middle East and Eastern Europe, bringing together key stakeholders to discuss the trends, challenges, and innovations in payments' security that are transforming the way we pay both regionally and globally. The summit theme—The Future is Digital: Securing a Connected World—reflects the growing connectedness of an increasingly digital world shaped by new consumer behaviour, players, and solutions. Gathering in Tbilisi, Georgia, leaders from Visa and around 100 senior executives from key financial institutions, merchants, and governmental bodies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Eastern Europe discussed local and global risk trends, protecting the payments' ecosystem from evolving cybersecurity threats, improving the customer experience, and shaping the future of digital payments. Delegates also discussed a number of key challenges, including the expansion of the fintech sector, the emergence of connected devices, and the proliferation of data have created potential new security vulnerabilities, which must be addressed to maintain trust in the overall system. "For people, merchants, and governments to use electronic payments and enjoy their benefits, they need to trust them. That is why we invest in cutting-edge technology and collaborate with our partners through platforms such as our Security Summit to ensure everyone is protected every time they pay or are paid using our products, solutions, and network," says Hector Rodriguez, the regional risk officer for central and eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Visa. He added, "the ever-changing nature of security risks necessitates the continuous innovation to keep all parties involved in a transaction safe and secure. Visa Checkout, for instance, is a highly effective innovation that is helping underpin the rapid growth of the region's eCommerce sector. Meanwhile, contactless innovations can provide additional security to in-person transactions by generating a unique code that makes stolen card information unusable. Although there is no "silver bullet" for payments' security, we have shown that by innovating and collaborating to develop new, complementary tools and approaches, we can help strengthen the integrity of the payments' ecosystem across the region and worldwide." Speaking on the "strengthening consumer trust" panel, Mohammed Ali Rashed Lootah, the CEO of the Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector in Dubai Economy, said, "consumer trust should be an integral element of the present focus on payment innovations. The consumer's right to safety is non-negotiable, but, at the same time, the consumer should know a product before acquiring it. Dubai Economy is in the process of accelerating the UAE's shift to a smart economy to which the overall consumer experience is central and contributed by happiness, transparency, and trust. Initiatives like Visa's Security Summit are key in bringing together key stakeholders from both the public and private sector to discuss the challenges and opportunities that a rapidly evolving payments landscape such as the UAE presents. Only through collaboration and knowledge sharing, can we leverage the technologies available to us to move towards a cashless economy built on a foundation of security and trust." R.Sivaram, EVP, the head of retail banking products at Emirates NBD, said, "Visa's Security Summit provided a good platform for discussion on trends in cards' and payments' security across the region and provided a good overview of the emerging roadmap in terms of product and technology initiatives. The opportunity to understand best practices from different countries and benchmarking customer experiences was indeed very useful." Visa has made huge strides in creating secure payment systems across all platforms and is at the forefront of advocating data security and fraud prevention measures that go beyond industry standards. Through technological innovation and in partnership with financial institution clients, governments, regulators, and merchants, Visa has reduced global fraud rates to near historic lows, even as Visa transaction volumes are on the rise. "Convening a group of the most influential industry stakeholders helps us ensure that we keep looking at ways to work smarter and better with our partners so that together we can protect the payments ecosystem from risks in our shared future," said Rodriguez.
