In July of 1991 the late sports columnist and humorist Lewis Grizzard gave his top 30 reasons for loving America. The second item on his list read as follows:

I can still see reruns of the Andy Griffith Show. My favorite scene remains the time a reporter came to Mayberry to do a story on the city with the lowest crime rate in the state. The reporter found Barney alone at the sheriff's department and asked him, "How many are on the Mayberry force?"
Barney replied, "Well, there's Andy [the Sheriff] and me…," then patted his holster and added, "And baby makes three."

Payments has three officers, if you will, that are charged with securing the landscape, just like in Mayberry. In either case, the work of the officers on the beat is about "prevention, response, and remediation."

With payments, "prevention" is about thwarting attacks—both physical and cyber-related, fraud, and outright theft. The work consists largely of insulating and securing processes, systems, and valuables with the most up-to-date security tactics and applications. It also involves educating and training staff. Awareness of and good judgment about the landscape, discerning the right policies and approaches, are vital.

"Response" entails reacting to incidents or problems. Here, the work is about having the wherewithal to detect a problem. It also entails reporting—before, during, and after events, both internally and externally. Additionally, response is about investigating and understanding precisely what happened and how. Determining how to seal the hole or holes that gave rise to the problem in the first place also falls under "response."

"Remediation" is the after-event work. This is about repairing the damage resulting from an event and includes everything from recovering losses and further shoring up security to assisting those harmed by an event. Repairing reputational damage falls under remediation.

Back to Mayberry. In the show, Andy got credit for the town's sterling record, and rightly so—he had good judgment and instincts. However, in my opinion, some of the best episodes highlighted Andy's secret weapon, a fourth entity on the police force—the average citizen. Individual responsibility that rolled up into collective ownership for the town underpinned Mayberry's enviable crime record. Sometimes it was Floyd the Barber (and town gossip) who gave Andy the advance warning he needed. Other times it was Gomer at the gas station or Andy's son, Opie, who provided folksy wisdom or insight that ended up being the difference between triumph and tragedy.

For payments to attain Mayberry's covetable crime rate, the citizens—that is, the consumers—have to be fully empowered, thoroughly educated, and roundly encouraged to vigorously participate in their own security. In my opinion, payments are at least partially plagued by moral hazard that owes to blanket consumer liability protections in some instances with a seeming bias for more of that, not less. At the very least, we should question our experience, revisiting and debating the matter of balance between reasonable consumer protection versus the notion of applying blanket coverage, irrespective of consumer choice and action. I see no scenario where dread over what will descend on the payment landscape next abates, not until safety consciousness among users has become more deeply rooted and the culture stabilized in a place where ownership for our well-being is a duty embraced by all, all the time.

Photo of Julius Weyman By Julius Weyman, vice president, Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed