The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of guidelines developed by MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover and JCB International to assist merchants in preventing payment card fraud and to improve security around processing and storing payment card details. Any company processing, storing or transmitting the above branded payment card numbers must be PCI DSS compliant or they risk losing the ability to process these payments.
Coffs Harbour City Council is required to be compliant with the PCI DSS. Non-compliance can result in fines to merchants of at least $10,000 per month and $500,000 per card brand (e.g. Visa, MasterCard) if there is a data breach. Annual verification of compliance must be supplied to any banking institution that provides Council with the means to accept the abovementioned card payments.