Data Breaches Are Affecting Consumer Behaviour and Trust in Credit Cards -- SmartMetric Says a Safer Card Is Needed

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Oct 22, 2014) -  SmartMetric, Inc. (OTCQB: SMME) -- According to a new survey nearly half of cardholders are vowing to avoid using plastic this holiday season, with 48 percent saying security breaches will make them more likely to pay with cash.

As data breaches exposing consumer credit card, debit card and other personal information become more common, nearly half of cardholding shoppers say they're reluctant this holiday season to return to stores that have been hacked, according to a new survey by CreditCards.com.

Forty-five percent of respondents with credit or debit cards said they would definitely or probably avoid one of their regular stores over the holidays if that retailer had experienced a data breach.

The survey of randomly selected American adults who have debit or credit cards was conducted for CreditCards.com by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

SmartMetric, the maker of biometric fingerprint activated credit and debit cards, says the loss of confidence and trust in the payments system is a serious issue for banks and retailers alike. The company President and CEO, Chaya Hendrick, said today the results of this latest survey show the urgent need for a better and more secure payments system such as that developed by SmartMetric.

SmartMetric has developed a payments card that uses a person's biometrics (fingerprint) to turn on the card before it can be used. Tying the card to the card owner by the use of biometrics will aid in combating the current tidal wave of credit card fraud, said the President and CEO of SmartMetric, Chaya Hendrick. Having a credit card that has a miniature fingerprint reader inside that in turn scans a person's fingerprint and matches it with the card owner's fingerprint stored inside the card to turn on the card, is a monumental increase in payment card defences. It also provides the use of a biometric credential, in this case the person's fingerprint, that never travels across networks or leaves the consumer's card, said SmartMetric's President.

About SmartMetric, Inc.
SmartMetric is a publicly traded technology company that has added a fingerprint scanner built inside EMV payment credit and debit chip cards, thereby creating a second layer biometric authentication protection in defending against card fraud. The company is now actively marketing its technology to card issuing financial institutions around the world. To find out more please go to www.smartmetric.com

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