Vantiv Integrated Payments Announces Security Pays 2.0 to Drive Stronger Security Adoption

New program with Visa stresses security measures to partners, merchants and consumers

CINCINNATI, OH “ Vantiv Integrated Payments, a Vantiv company (NYSE: VNTV) and a provider of payments technology and services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the next phase of the Security Pays initiative. This initiative promotes education and awareness, driving the adoption of security products to add layers of protection to the payments process, such as end-to-end encryption, tokenization and EMV.

“In the first Security Pays campaign, we deployed more than 10,000 EMV devices to businesses, said Matt Taylor, group president of integrated payments and emerging channels at Vantiv. “But we realized that is just the tip of the iceberg. That’s why we are launching Security Pays 2.0 to reach even more partners and merchants to continue the adoption of EMV, point-to-point encryption and tokenization technologies at the point-of sale, and make the payments ecosystem safer, better educated, and more successful.

Security Pays 2015, announced in August of last year, included more than 10,000 Vantiv Integrated Payment partner interactions during the five months of the campaign, with nearly 1,000 partners participating in the program. Security Pays focused on increasing security awareness and education of payments partners by encouraging them to become certified as Qualified Integrators and Resellers (QIR). So far with Vantiv’s financial and preparatory assistance, 67 Vantiv partners have passed the tests and now have the QIR certification, which represents more than three-quarters of all the companies with this certification in the U.S.

“Vantiv Integrated Payments is doing something that no other company is doing in the payments industry, said Thad Peterson, senior analyst at Aite Group. “Vantiv is focusing not only on education but on implementation at the merchant level to promote secure behaviors and products. You can already see the change based on Security Pays 2015.

The next phase of the program, Security Pays 2.0, aims to build and drive deeper engagement and activation of security standards with the merchants themselves. “We want our partners to integrate security into the sales dialogue and promote to the businesses the responsibility and advantages of implementing these products, added said Matt Downs, senior vice president of the integrated payments channel for Vantiv. “This new program will also focus on helping partners and merchants with additional awareness on industry changes, and subsidies on products and hardware that will make such a difference in their security to ensure integrity of the payments system.

CenterEdge Software, which offers management solutions for entertainment, amusement centers and restaurants, was Vantiv Integrated Payment’s first partner to process an EMV transaction on the Vantiv platform and one of the companies that has passed the QIR exams. “We know that it is a differentiator for us in the marketplace, said Marcus Mayer, president at CenterEdge Software. “Becoming EMV-ready has been a huge success for our sales and marketing teams, and the entire process was seamless.

Because forensic investigations reveal that small merchants remain a prime target of hackers who are trying to compromise payment data, Visa has now required that acquirers ensure all merchants use QIR companies by January 2017.
“We need to do all we can to promote point-to-point encryption, tokenization, and EMV chip to help take sensitive payment information out of merchant systems and make them less attractive targets for hackers, said Sonia Sng, senior director of data security and third party risk, Visa Inc. “We’re pleased to work with Vantiv to continue this important campaign to better protect against data breaches.
For more information on Security Pays 2.0, please visit www.MercuryPay.com/security-pays and follow the conversation on Twitter with #SecurityPays.

About Vantiv Integrated Payments
Vantiv Integrated Payments is making payments smarter, faster and easier by partnering with software companies and technology service firms to embed payments processing in front and back office applications. Our commerce technology integrates into a broad set of point of sale systems, reaching merchants through an extensive partner network of thousands of point-of-sale software developers and value-added resellers. Our award-winning customer service and value-added solutions help businesses to streamline and build revenue through simple to use commerce solutions.

About Vantiv
Vantiv, Inc. (NYSE: VNTV) is a leading payment processor differentiated by an integrated technology platform. Vantiv offers a comprehensive suite of traditional and innovative payment processing and technology solutions to merchants and financial institutions of all sizes, enabling them to address their payment processing needs through a single provider. We build strong relationships with our customers, helping them become more efficient, more secure and more successful. Vantiv is the second largest merchant acquirer and the largest PIN debit acquirer based on number of transactions in the U.S. The company’s growth strategy includes expanding further into high-growth channels and verticals, including integrated payments, ecommerce, and merchant bank. Visit us at the new www.vantiv.com, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube.