What is PCI?
 Making the World a Safer Place to Shop!

PCI stands for Payment Card Industry.  The PCI Security Standards Council is an international organization that was created by the major payment card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB). The Council jointly authors and administers the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies (merchants) that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was launched in 2006 to focus on improving payment account security throughout the transaction process.  The Council sets the standards but does not enforce them.  The enforcement of compliance is the responsibility the payment brands and acquirers. Often this is the merchant processor you have signed up with.  They are the ones who will check for PCI compliance and administer fees for non-compliance.

The purpose of PCI DSS is to create a more secure environment to process credit and debit cards. The PCI standards focus on twelve main security requirements for merchants to address in connection with PCI DSS compliancy.  However, the extent to which the twelve requirements need to be implemented and reported on depend on the number of transactions that a company processes in a year, which are separated into 4 levels. 

Shopper Safe helps merchants meet and exceed PCI compliance requirements.  To review the full set of requirements you can visit the PCI website (pcisecuritystandards.org).