What merchants need to know about securing transactions

Find out how to store, process and transmit payment data securely

All merchants that store, process or transmit cardholder data must be PCI compliant. Each merchant that is categorized as a Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 merchant is required to report compliance status directly to its acquiring bank.

Determining merchant level often raises questions. Mastercard recommends that merchants contact their acquiring bank and with assistance from the bank, merchants can then complete the following steps:

Determine merchant level using Mastercard transaction volume from the most recent 52-week period
Confirm necessary PCI validation requirements
Engage an approved vendor, as appropriate, and follow the validation procedures

Once a merchant had been verified as compliant, the merchant must submit the validation requirements to its acquiring bank, which then will report the merchant’s compliance status to Mastercard.

Category	Criteria	Requirements	Compliance Date
Level 1	Any merchant that has suffered a hack or an attack that resulted in an account data compromise Any merchant having more than six million total combined Mastercard and Maestro transactions annually Any merchant meeting the Level 1 criteria of Visa Any merchant that Mastercard, in its sole discretion, determines should meet the Level 1 merchant requirements to minimize risk to the system	Annual Onsite Assessment¹ Quarterly Network Scan conducted by an ASV²	30 June 2012³
Level 2	Any merchant with more than one million but less than or equal to six million total combined Mastercard and Maestro transactions annually Any merchant meeting the Level 2 criteria of Visa	Annual Self-Assessment⁴ Onsite Assessment at Merchant Discretion⁴ Quarterly Network Scan conducted by an ASV²	30 June 2012⁴
Level 3	Any merchant with more than 20,000 combined Mastercard and Maestro e-commerce transactions annually but less than or equal to one million total combined Mastercard and Maestro e-commerce transactions annually Any merchant meeting the Level 3 criteria of Visa	Annual Self-Assessment Quarterly Network Scan conducted by an ASV²	30 June 2005
Level 4	All other merchants⁵	Annual Self-Assessment Quarterly Network Scan conducted by an ASV²	Consult Acquirer

Visit pcisecuritystandards.org for the most updated information

^{1. Effective 30 June 2012, Level 1 merchants that choose to conduct an annual onsite assessment using an internal auditor must ensure that primary internal auditor staff engaged in validating PCI DSS compliance attend PCI SSC ISA Training and pass the associated accreditation program annually in order to continue to use internal auditors.}

^{2. Quarterly network scans must be conducted by a PCI SSC Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV).}

^3.^{Initial compliance date of June 2005 for Level 1 merchants has now passed. The 30 June 2012 deadline is for PCI SSC ISA training and certification only and is for those merchants that choose to conduct an annual onsite assessment using an internal auditor.}

^{4. Effective 30 June 2012, Level 2 merchants that choose to complete an annual self-assessment questionnaire must ensure that staff engaged in the self-assessment attend PCI SSC ISA Training and pass the associated accreditation program annually in order to continue the option of self-assessment for compliance validation. Alternatively, Level 2 merchants may, at their own discretion, complete an annual onsite assessment conducted by a PCI SSC approved Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) rather than complete an annual self-assessment questionnaire.}

^{5. Level 4 merchants are required to comply with the PCI DSS. Level 4 merchants should consult their acquirer to determine if compliance validation is also required.}