Visa USA announces Account Truncation Initiative

Visa USA today announced a new initiative intended to deal with increasing identity theft among American consumers. The basic idea is to limit the paper trail of receipts containing card numbers and expiration dates. Visa USA CEO Carl Pascarella made the announced today in Washington, DC.

"Today, I am proud to announce an additional measure to combat identity theft and protect consumers. Our new receipt truncation policy will soon limit cardholder information on receipts to the last four digits of their accounts. The card's expiration date will be eliminated from receipts altogether. This is an added security measure for consumers that doesn't require any action by the cardholder. We are proud to be the first payments brand to announce such a move to protect cardholders' identities by restricting access to their account information on receipts. "The first phase of this new policy goes into effect July 1, 2003 for all new terminals. I would like to add, however, that even before this policy goes into effect, many merchants have already voluntarily begun truncating receipts, thanks to groundwork that we began together several years ago.