Study on the security of payment products and
systems in the 15 Member States
The issue
There was a widely held perception in the European
Union and elsewhere that, despite strong growth in
e-commerce and especially in e-banking and e-shopping,
the general public lacked confidence in the security
aspects of conducting transactions electronically
(payments using Electronic Payment Instruments - EPIs).
In this context, PricewaterhouseCoopers was commissioned
in May 2002 by the European Commission - DG Internal
Market and services to undertake a study on the security
of payment products and systems in the 15 Member States
of the European Union.
This study aimed to establish the levels of confidence
that existed across the EU member states, to assess
what the security situation was in practice and how
such security was really implemented, and finally
to what extent users of EPIs were informed and reassured
about their security when using EPIs.
Our approach
The PricewaterhouseCoopers approach split the survey
work into four distinct parts using specific methodologies
(benchmarking methodology, measurement of specific
indicator, analysis):
- Part 1: Perception of citizens in the EU Member
States of technical security of EPIs.
- Part 2: Overview of the existing and envisaged
secure payment solutions, including a technical
security assessment and a comparative analysis
of that security and the economic feasibility.
- Part 3: Effectiveness of security solutions,
performed on more than 500 websites throughout
Europe.
- Part 4: Level and quality of information provided
to consumers on the technical security solutions
in place.
To carry out this study, the PricewaterhouseCoopers
offices in Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands
collaborated together with the Belgian law firm
and with input from the PricewaterhouseCoopers
offices in each Member State.
The outcome
All the scope of the study was covered and the findings
gave the answers to the following questions:
- What is consumers' real perception about the
security of payment instruments?
- Which payments instruments are (or might be)
more secure than others and why?
- What is the result of comparing the public perception
with the real security situation?
- What security measures are actually implemented
in practice (as opposed to the security which
is or will shortly be available, but is not yet
implemented)?
- How far are the consumers informed about the
existing security measures?
