WASHINGTON – Last week Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) participated on a panel discussion that explored payment technology. Held by The Hill newspaper in Washington, D.C., and sponsored by Visa, the panel discussion explored how government and industry can work together to protect American consumers from cybertheft.

Peters is a co-founder of the bipartisan Senate Payments Innovation Caucus, which was created in 2014 to help educate members of Congress and their staff on data security and innovation in electronic payment technologies.

FedScoop.com writes that, according to Peters, chip-and-signature EMV cards in the United States lag EMV cards in Europe, which use a PIN for card user verification. However, the senator suggested that the U.S. will “leapfrog” over chip-and-signature very quickly and move into biometrics “and other kinds of security measures,” notes the news source.

“Biometrics is going to play a bigger role in payments going forward because it can be more convenient and it can be a stronger form of verification,” said Mark Nelsen, senior vice president of risk products and business intelligence at Visa, who also spoke on the panel.

The news source continues that some U.S. issuers, such as the federal government, are issuing EMV cards with PIN. Following an executive order last year, the General Services Administration began rolling out chip and PIN cards to federal workers. “They’re [GSA] sending out new cards every day. …they’re literally plugging in new terminals every day,” Ben Flatgard, director of cybersecurity policy for the National Security Council, told FedScoop following last week’s event. “It’s a pretty dynamic process.”

On Oct. 1, the fraud liability shift took effect for card-present, physical POS transactions inside the store; Oct. 1, 2017, is the liability shift for card readers at the pump.