Visa Says 2007 Saw 'Significant' PCI Progress Among US Retailers

Visa released a statement this week about the state of PCI compliance. They say that "as of the end of 2007, more than three-fourths of the largest U.S. merchants (those processing six million or more Visa transactions annually) and nearly two-thirds of medium-sized merchants (those processing between one million and six million Visa transactions annually) have now validated their compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Merchants in these two categories account for approximately two-thirds of Visa's U.S. transaction volume."

The numbers? Visa points to a jump from "12 percent in March 2006 to 77 percent" by year end among large vendors and says medium-sized merchants, "compliance grew from 15 percent in December 2006 to 62 percent."

The company is calling for complete compliance among its entire merchant base -- all the way down to small merchants, or Level 4s. In fact, Visa says "100 percent of active U.S. acquirers have submitted plans to Visa and are in the process of implementing their security programs."