Secure Payments, PCI DSS, Regulatory Compliance Blog

My acquirer won’t help, what next?

May 7th, 2007 by admin Posted in Asia-Pacific, Merchant

bank.jpgI’m in Sydney and Melbourne (Australia, aka. OZ) this week talking with merchants and they are less than happy with the communication they have received from their acquirers. Now this is only one side of the story, but the fact of the matter is that PCI is just now starting to gain momentum in Asia-Pacific.

As a result, many more merchants and service providers are being told they need to comply and having to learn the ropes by themselves. This is the same path that companies in the USA went down a year or two ago (and many companies are still going down today.) It is effectively, ground zero or day one, where all of the tough questions/lessons have to be learned. The key to succeeding with PCI is knowing who to ask and what to ask them.

Let’s say that your acquirer is not providing assistance, what do you do?

  1. Ask your QSA [PDF]
  2. Ask a card brand
  3. Ask PCI Answers ;)
  4. Ask in an online forum or Yahoo! user group
  5. Use the resources page, and the card association web sites.

There are a number of different resources. You need to use them.

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  1. 2 Responses to “My acquirer won’t help, what next?”

  2. By APM on May 7, 2007

    I work for a merchant with a UK based Acquirer and I’m not happy with the support they are providing.

    I dare say some of it is because MasterCard appear to be less than clear on the various aspects of compliance particularly dates. Visa seem happy as long as you can prove “progress” in your PCI Compliance Project.

    I also have the feeling, although I can not substantiate it to any degree, that the requirements a merchant is under (particularly absolute compliance dates) varies depending on which Acquirer you are going through.

    I asked a question in a webinar recently which was joint hosted by MasterCard. The question was directed to the MasterCard rep. who was VP of something or other to do with PCI / Compliance. The question was, “when is the ABSOLUTE deadline date for compliance?”.

    The answer?

    Any guesses?

    “Speak to your Acquirer”!!!!!!!

  3. By Andrew on May 7, 2007

    Any Australian merchants wanting to have a chat about the requirements are more than welcome to send me an email: andrew[at]withamlabs.com

    If you want to discuss issues over the phone, please visit our website ( http://www.withamlabs.com ) for our contact details.

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