ControlScan and the Merchant Acquirers' Committee jointly released the Risk and Revenue: Second Annual Survey of the Acquirer's Perspective on Level 4 Merchant PCI Compliance. The report examines major shifts in the process as Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance programs gain traction. In all, 123 banks, processors and ISOs with Level 4 merchant portfolios were surveyed for the report.
A noticeable shift among those surveyed was the gravitation to revenue generation as a primary PCI program goal. Acquirers with organizationally supported PCI programs continue to achieve higher compliance rates and experience fewer breaches. Lack of perceived value combined with low merchant PCI compliance rates were cited as the most significant PCI program barriers.
Following is a breakdown of the primary goals the study found for PCI compliance:
| • PCI compliance program goals (1 = most important): | 2013 | 2012 | ||
| • Generate additional revenue | ||||
| • Meet card brand requirements | ||||
| • Achieve high compliance rates | ||||
| • Reduce risk resulting from cardholder data breaches |
"Competitive pressures in the payments space impact how acquirers balance their merchants' needs with their own business need for a healthy bottom line," stated Joan Herbig, Chief Executive Officer of ControlScan. "Traditional merchant services are no longer as profitable as they once were, so we're seeing a conflict between risk and revenue play out in the way acquirers manage their PCI programs."
MAC offered a recommendation for reducing risk without sacrificing profitability. "What I'd like to see is a shift from dumping PCI out to your entire portfolio to a risk stratification concept, so that at a minimum you're focusing on getting those higher risk merchants [compliant]," said Susan Matt, Chief Financial Officer at MAC.
Education continues to play a critical role in PCI compliance. "I think most acquirers are communicating once merchants are boarded into their system," said Heather Foster, Vice President of Marketing at ControlScan. "But there is still a lot of work that has to be done before you board a merchant, so the merchant understands this is just a necessary part of business and there are no surprises when they sign up."
A recent survey of retailers from a variety of verticals found they are using real-time customer data capture at the POS in order to:
Online publishing network Retail TouchPoints released the 2013 Outlook Guide, which offers a detailed account of the challenges retailers face today. The guide provides insights from 13 retail industry experts on such topics as personalization, collaboration, show-rooming and omnichannel retailing. Also featured are tips for a variety of retailers, from specialty and big-box to grocery and home improvement enterprises.
Celent LLC issued a report highlighting the 10 worst practices vendors engage in when selling products and services to financial institutions (FIs). How to Give a Really Bad Demo, Banking Edition: Ten Worst Practices from Actual Experience presents experiences ranging from not bothering to discuss the business value of vendor offerings to failing to understand FIs at all. The report's purpose is to help vendors "think about how to make demos work for them."
According to an ABI Research Mobile Application Markets study, 81 billion smart phone and tablet apps had been distributed by app stores as of September 2012. Eighty-nine percent of apps were native to the operating system of the mobile devices to which the apps were downloaded, according to the research. Findings suggest expensive hosting and labor requirements will make it unlikely the market for smaller, niche app stores will develop.
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