Visa and Amex drop CardSystems

Visa USA and American Express have dropped their relationship with CardSystems Solutions after confidential information for 40 million accounts were exposed to a hacker because CardSystems stored this sensitive information in violation of their security standards.

According to a report released by The Arizona Daily Star, On Monday, Visa USA sent a letter to 11 banks that issue Visa-branded cards and use CardSystems to process payments informing them it was "terminating its approval of CardSystems Solutions Inc. as a Visa processor and third-party agent."

The Arizona Daily Star also reported that a spokeswoman at MasterCard International, the second-biggest credit-card group behind Visa, said it was giving CardSystems until Aug. 31 to bring itself into compliance with its security rules.

Visa USA has just tried to calm the fears of its customers since this incident took place, which involved 20 million Visa-branded cards, by issuing the following statements on its website:

"Visa USA actively guards against fraud on behalf of both cardholders and merchants with the industry's most sophisticated fraud-fighting systems, including neutral networks, Advanced Authorisation, and the Verified by Visa programme for online merchants. Thanks to these multiple layers of security and Visa's unmatched commitment, Visa card fraud is at an all time low.

"We encourage cardholders to always review account statements carefully and notify their card issuing bank of an unusual activity."

MasterCard, which had 13.9 million of its accounts exposed, has assured its users that no social security numbers of dates of birth have been stolen to date because this information is not stored on MasterCard cards.

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