Payarc PCI Program

A stolen credit card means potentially devastating losses for the card network, banks, and the cardholders themselves. That’s why the Payment Card Industry is always trying to stay one step ahead of criminals who would steal cardholder data. That’s why American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and JCB International founded the Security Standards Council in 2006—their work prioritizes the understanding and implementation of “standards for security policies, technologies, and ongoing processes that protect their payment systems from breaches and theft of cardholder data” and “helping vendors understand and implement standards for creating secure payment solutions.”

The PCI-DSS—the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards—are regulations that all merchants must stay compliant with in order to accept credit cards. These Standards exist to protect cardholder data and help keep everyone safe from fraud. As a result, they are ever-changing to keep up with new technology.

PCI Levels

The Security Standards Council has determined levels for PCI compliance related to how many transactions a merchant does annually. Payarc itself is PCI Level 1 DSS Compliant—which means that PayArc belongs to the highest level of security. Merchants who must comply with Level 1 do more than 6 million Visa or Mastercard transactions annually. Most merchants, however, are PCI Levels 2, 3, or 4. Merchants who must comply with Level 2 do between 1 million and 6 million Visa or Mastercard transactions yearly, merchants who must comply with Level 3 do between 20,000 and 1 million Visa or Mastercard transactions yearly, and merchants who must comply with Level 4 do less than 20,000 Via or MasterCard transactions yearly.

How Can Payarc Help?

Payarc offers a range of programs to manage risk and stay PCI-compliant. These programs range from encryption and tokenization to velocity filter, AVS/CVV capture, and the ability to limit transactions from select countries. Additionally, Payarc’s Gateway Service is PCI-compliant and allows merchants to monitor transactions in real-time.

All of this is managed through our partnership with ControlScan. Payarc utilizes ControlScan’s state-of-the-art software to manage merchant PCI compliance. This includes a PCI self-assessment, vulnerability scanning, access to live support, and educational content designed to help merchants understand compliance and security better.