PCI Compliance
What is PCI compliance and why is it important?
Any merchant who accepts credit card payments should have an understanding of what is PCI compliance and why it is an important factor in choosing a payment processor who can support the security aspect of the merchant’s transaction process. The PCI DSS term stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and is a set of security standards that must be followed by companies that accept, process, store or transmit credit card data. Powercash21’s payment gateway is PCI DSS Level 1 certified and as a merchant you can rely on the highly secure environment we offer for payment processing and cardholder data handling.
The benefits of following PCI compliance regulations
Enhance the payment security you offer to your customers by becoming PCI compliant. By operating in accordance with the PCI compliance rules, your business will gain strong advantages, including:
- Increased trust levels between the customer and your business: Being compliant shows that your clients’ payment card data is protected and consumers will feel confident to purchase goods and services on a secure website.
- Higher profits: As a result of the trust and safety that your clients feel when they buy a product or a service from your business, the chances of coming back and purchasing again from you are definitely higher which will lead to increased profits for your online business.
- Enhanced mainstream business reputation: By investing in PCI information security, you minimize the risk of data breaches that can have a significantly negative impact on your brand reputation.
- Lower risk to receive fines: By being compliant, the risk of data breach decreases and so does the possibility of receiving a fine for not satisfying PCI compliance requirements.
Why PCI compliance is important for Powercash21
PCI is a standard that was created by card schemes to ensure a framework exists that online merchants implement to prevent data breaches when it comes to processing, storing or transmitting cardholder data. Powercash21, as a Principal Member of Visa and MasterCard, has a PCI policy to support the compliance of its merchants as well as the highest level of PCI certification for its gateway.
For us, it’s important to provide each and every merchant with a strictly secure payment environment and to provide protection against PCI non-compliance fines.
A PCI compliance checklist for your own benefit
In order to become a PCI compliant merchant, it’s vital to understand what is PCI compliance and why it’s necessary for your business. The most important steps to ensuring PCI compliance include:
- Determine under which compliance level your business falls. This can be identified based on the number of credit card transactions you process in a year’s time. Your company’s compliance level could be of a Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, or Level 4. For example, a PCI Level 4 compliant business usually process less than 20,000 online transactions in a 12-month period.
- Fill out a PCI DSS Self-Assessment questionnaire by answering questions related to PCI DSS requirements. You can find the questionnaire at pcisecuritystandards.org.
- Complete an AOC (Attestation of Compliance) to confirm that your business complies with all the PCI standards.
- Submit your SAQ and AOC documents to the acquiring bank and relevant credit card issuing companies.
