Visa criticizes the lackluster security measures for PayPal’s new mobile payment platform

After months of trials with NFC-powered mobile payments, PayPal announced earlier this month that it would be abandoning the technology entirely. The company will instead be adopting a mobile payment system of its own, whose security measures are claimed to be unbeatable. PayPal’s claims have run afoul of Visa, however, who has invested a great deal in NFC technology. The global credit company is well-versed in matters of financial security for consumers and has taken issue with PayPal’s insistence that its own protection methods trump those put in place by financial institutions.

In responding to recent criticisms regarding the move away from NFC, PayPal Communications Director Anuj Nayar said that a consumer’s “financial information… is safer in the PayPal digital cloud than in your pocket.” Visa was quick to blow the whistle on this claim, citing PayPal’s security measures as proof of the methodology that could lead the company into trouble.

With PayPal’s mobile payment system, a consumer’s financial information will be stored on a cloud network of computer servers. These clouds have proven quite resilient to hacking attempts in the past, which is one of the reasons why PayPal has been quick to laud the security of its platform. Visa notes, however, that this financial information can be access through the use a phone number associated with a particular account and a PIN. Visa claims that phone numbers and PINs are easy to get a hold of, even for those with pristine intentions. As such, Visa is warning anyone that chooses to use PayPal’s platform to guard their PINs intensely lest their financial information be stolen.