P97 Networks Partners With Cybersource to Expand Mobile Payments at the Pump Globally

Houston-based P97 Networks Inc., a provider of cloud-based mobile-commerce technology, including pay-at-pump, has partnered with Cybersource, Visa Inc.’s fraud-management platform, to expand its PetroZone platform offering to fuel retailers both in North America and overseas. P97 has installations in 140 countries.

PetroZone is an EMV-compliant application that enables mobile payment at the pump without the need to replace existing card readers, making it a potentially lower-cost alternative for gas-station owners to become EMV-compliant compared to installing new readers or pumps.

With an April 2021 card-network deadline for fuel retailers to become EMV-compliant approaching, fraud prevention is expected to become a bigger issue for gas-station owners as criminals are expected to target non-compliant stations. For example, criminals operating in high-risk geographic areas, such as the I-95 corridor along the East Coast, are already singling out non-EMV-compliant gas stations, says Thad Peterson, a senior analyst at Aite Group. The scam the criminals are running is to use a stolen card to fill up a large bladder with gas and resell it for pure profit.

“Stations without EMV are going to be exposed to fraud,” says Peterson. “P97’s solution is a low-cost work-around to becoming EMV-compliant and protecting against fraud.” Founded in 1994, Cybersource was acquired by Visa in 2010 as part of an early effort by both Visa and Mastercard to acquire fraud-fighting technology, an effort that has accelerated in recent years.

PetroZone also supports contactless payment features such as mobile preorder (activating the pump from within the car via a mobile app), contactless payment at the pump, and customized marketing offers and promotions for consumers.

The contactless features, however, are expected to have increasing appeal to consumers as the Covid-19 pandemic has changed payment behavior by moving consumers away from cash or inserting cards into a terminal in favor of contactless options, such as tap-and-go and paying through a mobile app.

“As contactless solutions migrate across retail channels, we will see more contactless payment at the pump,” Peterson says.