International markets pushing up demand for payment security systems

The expansion into foreign markets by U.S.-based online retailers is pushing up demand for security systems that address global payment card industry data security standards, says Dave Glaser, vice president of professional services at CyberSource Corp., a provider of payment processing and risk management software and services.

“Demand for payment security is increasing among U.S. online merchants looking to process payments around the world, with most growth in Western Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America,” Glaser says.

CyberSource, for example, is seeing increased demand among international retailers for its Payment Data Management system, which it introduced last year. The system stores the credit card data of retailers’ customers in a CyberSource database, leaving the merchant free from the risk related to storing that data, Glaser says. The system handles direct debit, bank transfers, debit cards and several country-specific credit cards, he adds.

A hosted on-demand version of the Payment Data Management system handles the payment processing as well as the data storage outside of the merchant’s network infrastructure. Although initial demand for the on-demand version came from merchants that do up to about $25 million a year in revenue, CyberSource is beginning to see more adoption by larger retailers as part of their strategies for meeting the payment card industry data security standards, or PCI DSS, Glaser says.

Retailers operating across multiple countries are also looking at how to centralize their payment and data security systems, Glaser says. “Many large multi-national retailers have traditionally operated decentralized systems for web sites, call centers and store point-of-sale systems,” he says. “As they grew internally or by acquisition, they often built a payment system for each channel or for each market. But by migrating to a centralized payment system as a mission critical application, he adds, retailers operating across international markets find it easier to manage payment processing and data security.