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Reported compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard continues to increase among merchants in the United States, according to Visa Inc. PCI is a set of card data protection standards initially developed by Visa, MasterCard Worldwide, American Express Co., Discover Financial Services Inc. and JCB International Inc. As of Sept. 30, acquirers of Level 1 merchants, which accept 6 million or more Visa transactions per year, reported that 87% of their merchant customers had validated their PCI compliance, up from 81% that did as of Aug. 31. Acquirers reported 86% of their Level 2 merchants, which accept 1 million to 6 million Visa transactions annually, had been validated PCI compliant, up from 85% that were a month earlier. Some 57% of Level 3 merchants, which accept between 20,000 and 1 million Visa electronic-commerce transactions per year, had been validated PCI compliant as of Sept. 30 up from 56% that were as of March 31, the most-recently reported compliance date for that level. Level 4 merchants do not have to validate their compliance with PCI to merchant acquirers but are expected to follow its data-protection practices.
