SpeechStorm attains Payment Card Industry (PCI) validation of pre-built Payment Capture application as EU card fraud reaches EUR 1.5bn

Belfast, 15 January, 2013 – Leader in phone-based and mobile customer service, SpeechStorm, has announced that its Payment Capture application has been validated against the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI-SSC: www.pcisecuritystandards.org). This is an important achievement at a time when EU payment card fraud stands at EUR1.5bn.

This validation means that organisations adopting the company’s IVR applications can ensure the highest level of over-the-phone card payment security, protecting cardholder data and consumers from the ever-present threat of payment card fraud.  SpeechStorm’s application is also the first pre-built PA-DSS compliant solution for Genesys Voice Platform (GVP).

While most organisations are aware of their obligations to be PCI compliant, achieving compliance for solutions already in operation or for in-house developed applications can be challenging, costly and time consuming. SpeechStorm’s pre-built application not only enables rapid deployment, it reduces the time and effort required for a PCI audit, since the core application itself has already been validated according to PA-DSS.

SpeechStorm Payment Capture can be used either in fully automated self-service transactions, e.g. paying a bill over the phone using the IVR, or in allowing payments to be taken in the contact centre, using the IVR to capture sensitive card data instead of the customer being asked for it by an agent.

“As customers, we all trust that organisations will use and store our data in a responsible way. Merchants must comply with industry regulations or face being fined. An off-the-shelf solution that is already validated is the fastest and most effective way for an organisation to meet security standards compliance, and is especially important at a time when the level of card fraud demands we do all in our power to prevent it,” said SpeechStorm CEO and co-founder, Oliver Lennon.

According to a report recently released by Europol*, credit and debit card fraud across the European Union currently stands at approximately EUR1.5bn a year. With 726 million such cards in use in the EU, this move by SpeechStorm will protect client businesses by protecting their customers’ data.

“Compliance is something demanded by industry, but customers are also increasingly concerned about how their card details are handled,” Lennon continued. “One of the advantages of IVR over other approaches to compliance is that customers themselves feel re-assured about the security of the transaction – keying in or speaking card details to a machine feels much safer than reading them out to someone you don’t know at the other end of the line.  For card users like you and me, that makes an everyday task not just much easier, but more secure, too.”

PA-DSS validated Payment Capture is included in SpeechStorm’s latest software release, codenamed Godard, and available now.