Small merchants provide many valuable services in communities across the country, and oftentimes these businesses are family-owned, with just enough capital to remain operational month-to-month. The lack of resources available to them leaves them vulnerable to unscrupulous criminals who exploit these businesses to commit different types of frauds, including credit cards. A new $10 million initiative launched by American Express (News - Alert) called the Small Merchant EMV Assistance Program, has been established to encourage the adoption of more secure checkout terminals by these businesses.

The program was announced by President Barack Obama to urge payment and retail industry members to work together to protect everyone across the value chain, including businesses and consumers.

The initiative by American Express will provide qualifying businesses with $100 to upgrade their payment terminals so they can start accepting secure chip-based EMV enabled credit cards, as well as providing educational resources regarding new security standards through webinars, forums and other events. While the company has been providing chip-and-pin credit cards internationally for more than 10 years, it just started issuing EMV-enabled cards to limited U.S. card members last year. Since that time it has made the technology available to all U.S. card members who request the EMV cards.

The fraud protection platform the company has implemented includes real-time alerts through text notifications, mobile application alerts, emails and voice messages to get in touch with consumers as soon as possible to minimize the damage and stop further loss.

With EMV technology, the security of payment transactions are enhanced by storing data on a chip embedded on the card. In order to use the card merchants also have to install terminals that are equipped with the technology to read the chip on the card.

“We know from speaking with our smallest merchants that they are too busy running the day-to-day operations of their businesses to keep up with the constantly-changing fraud landscape,” said Anré Williams, President, Global Merchant Services, American Express. “That is why we’re launching this program to help educate small merchants about point-of-sale security and offset the cost of upgrading their terminals. The program will benefit our small merchants as well as our Card Members, who can feel secure as they continue to support their local communities and shop small.”

The program is scheduled for launch in February 2015, and eligible merchants that have upgraded their terminals can request a one-time $100 reimbursement from American Express by April 30, 2015.