Independent sales organizations are increasing their use of non-compliance fees for merchants that don’t adhere to PCI Security Standards Council requirements, with 23% of ISOs surveyed for the ControlScan/MAC 2020 Acquiring Trends Report saying they assess these fees. That’s up from the historic range of 17% to 18%.
The report, released in March, is based on a survey last fall of 68 payments-industry professionals.
Only 26% reported compliance rates above 60%. It had been 42% in 2018. The reasons for the drop are multiple, but chief among them—with 50% citing it—is that merchants were initially compliant, but their annual validation lapsed.
Another factor, at 20%, is the decreased frequency of communications about compliance. Other factors—at 10% each—include a change in PCI-compliance program partners, decrease or elimination of merchant education on compliance, decrease or elimination of noncompliance fees, and more complex compliance requirements.