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Aug. 27, 2014 – NAFCU Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt wrote an editorial in American Banker urging Congress to impose a national standard for retailers in the wake of the continued onslaught of major retailer breaches.

"Since most of the major data breaches have been engineered through malware, chip-and-pin technology alone would not have prevented them," Hunt wrote. "In order to make customer transactions safer, Congress should hold retailers and any other businesses responsible for the storage of consumer data subject to standards similar to those imposed on financial institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Under Gramm-Leach-Bliley, credit unions and other financial institutions are required to meet certain criteria for safekeeping consumers' personal information."

Hunt referenced the recent UPS data breach as well as the breach at the grocery chain owner Supervalu and the widespread malware attack called Backoff. She also noted that NAFCU estimates the Target breach last year will, on its own, cause financial institutions to lose $480 million in card replacement costs and other expenses.

NAFCU was the first financial trade association to call for a national data security standard for retailers in the wake of the massive Target data breach last year, and has been steadfast in its push for legislative action on Capitol Hill.