Daily Archives: September 23, 2011

Business, Financial, Financial Services, Financial Solutions, Money

Are You Up To Speed With PCI DSS?

It’s crucial that businesses keep on top of compliance, particularly with a range of updates being made to PCI DSS requirements. Tim Allitt, Head of Sales & Marketing, SecureTrading takes you through what your organisation needs to consider.

Many organisations have taken significant steps to achieve PCI compliance and believe their current infrastructures would pass assessments. Now that the PCI Security Council has released version 2.0 of the PCI Data Security Standard and Payment Application Standard it is vital that retailers understand what this means for their day-to-day business.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) recently updated its compliance guidance. Many retailers were hoping the update would give a clear way forward in terms of their PCI DSS compliance.

The guidance covered two areas. Firstly, the guidance concludes that EMV (Europay, MasterCard and VISA (EMV) or more commonly referred to as chip and pin) does not address PCI DSS and therefore the two need to coexist. The SSC are supporting EMV but it is still not insisting that EMV become the global standard. This means UK merchants are put at risk every time they want to accept payment on cards which are not EMV smartcards, and UK card holders are put at risk because their stolen data can be used on cloned cards outside of the UK where swipe is still the default standard.

Secondly, with regard to Point To Point Encryption (P2PE), the SSC states that the technology is at an ‘immature’ stage. The reality is however, that there are solutions in the market today which fit the P2PE definition and which are PCI DSS certified.

The responsibility of managing data is one issue that won’t disappear for retailers and they may want to consider outsourcing the management of payments to a third party. Cost is a big concern to a retailer and if a business outsources to a secure, outsourced managed service from a Level 1 PCI DSS certified payment solution provider they will be able to have a fixed cost for this managed service. If they choose to outsource these costs they could potentially spiral out of control. According to a survey by Cisco, 67 per cent of IT decision makers think that their spending on PCI compliance will increase in the next year.

Therefore it makes sense for a business to select a suitable payment processor for a retailer’s needs and outsource its PCI requirements. Not only will this make integration easy and provide excellent technical support, it will also offer the merchant the ability to offer all the payment methods a customer might have in their wallet or purse and thereby enable businesses to process payments swiftly and securely. The best payment processors will have a range of products to suit start-ups, SMEs and large corporate organisations.

Via EPR Network
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Debts, Financial, Financial Services, Loans, Money, Personal Finance

Payday Express Customers To Benefit From Faster Payments

Short term loan specialist Payday Express now has the ability to fund loans within 45 minutes of application, thanks to a new loan management system and faster payment procedures offered by banks.

The company has offered same-day loans for some time, with the use of a straightforward online application form, and cash transfers occurring three times each day. Now, however, following deployment of a new loan management system, loans can be distributed every 45 minutes.

This speedy service is complemented by the faster payments facility operated by many banks, meaning that transferred funds clear immediately. Money can therefore be received by many Payday Express customers within one hour of application.

Loans till payday, which have grown in popularity in recent years, give borrowers access to small amounts of money for short periods to smooth out the peaks and troughs they may experience with their income, without them having to build up long-term, high-level debt. They are ideal for those who don’t wish to use ongoing credit resources such as credit cards, bank overdrafts and long-term bank loans, offering an alternative credit solution to temporary cash flow issues.

Payday Express offers fast payday loans valued between £80 and £800, which customers re-pay on their payday, once cash flow is no longer an issue.

Payday Express operations manager Sarah Carroll said: “If customers simply want to borrow a small amount of cash for a short period to cover unanticipated expenses, or to use as a stop gap between salary payments, they want to be able to apply for the money simply and discreetly – and to receive it quickly.

“At Payday Express, we have worked hard to develop our systems and our website to meet these expectations. Since launching our online application service in 2008 we have enabled customers to discreetly apply for a loan and receive an approval decision within a matter of minutes and then, if approved, to get their money the same day.

“However, we’ve now improved our offering further, with the introduction of a system that transfers money every 45 minutes. Our customers can therefore receive their money within less than an hour of applying, subject to status.”

It is important to note that, although most customers can receive their funds within less than an hour of application, this is subject to status and whether additional verification is required, as well as being dependent on their bank’s facilities.

Via EPR Network
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