AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas Credit Union League's grass roots efforts to bolster credit and debit card security will continue for the next two years as House Bill 3222 died in committee here.
Texas league Communications Director for Advocacy Winter Prosapio said Texas retailers opposed to the bill were successful in creating enough confusion regarding the content that the bill's momentum in the Senate Business and Commerce committee ran out of steam. The Texas Legislature only meets for five months every two years.
"We ran out of time. We literally ran out of runway," she said. "The less they're in session, the better. That's the traditional Texas attitude."
Propasio said the Texas League will now prepare interim studies to keep legislators informed and educated on how their constituents are being affected by data breaches and identity theft.
"Every breach over the next two years, we'll make sure senators know how breaches are affecting their constituents," she said.
Texas League President Dick Ensweiler said HB 3222 was the first step in the journey to secure member's financial identity.
"Although we weren't successful in passing the bill this time, we've placed the industry on notice. The financial data of our members must be taken seriously," Ensweiler said.
According to a Texas House of Representatives internal analysis "H.B. 3222 requires a business, in the regular course of business that collects, maintains, or stores sensitive personal information in connection with an access device, to follow payment card industry data security standards. The bill authorizes a financial institution to bring an action against a business which is subject to a security breach if, at the time of the security breach, the business is in violation of certain provisions of the bill."
Rick Grady, VP marketing and communications, said the Texas league is at the forefront of an effort to increase card security nationwide, especially after the details of the high-tech methods used by thieves in the TJ Maxx case.
Prosapio said the main problem is with large merchants such as TJ Maxx who store millions of account numbers and suffer some sort of breach. Prosapio said small "mom and pop" stores aren't the real problem as they almost always use a third-party vendor for credit card processing.
Like many card-security advocates, the Texas league is seeking merchants and large card issuers such as VISA and MasterCard to adhere to established Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. The Texas league sought the help of its legislature after the expensive cards' replacements during the last few years, an act that Prosapio said credit unions take voluntarily.
Prosapio said the league's existing advocate list was used to contact Texas legislators by phone, mail or fax. Of the 150 members in the House, Prosapio said she knows at least 90% were contacted as a result of using credit union advocates.
For info: www.house.state.tx.us/bills/welcome.php.
