It’s not uncommon to hear groans and complaints whenever implementing compliance measures is discussed. In the minds of many, compliance is synonymous with burdensome regulations and, more importantly, unexpected and unwanted expenses. Thinking about something as daunting as PCI compliance, in particular, can be enough to send a teetotaler to the pub.
Getting relief from regulatory requirements isn’t so simple. The only remedy is replacing the government or agency responsible for them, which is a task easier dreamed about than done. Once you accept that things are what they are, and that you’re going to have to adapt or go under, the only perceived headache left is the cost.
But what if putting PCI compliance systems into place didn’t break your budget? Better yet, what if they actually saved your company money? Ready to be your company’s hero? Read on.
In this article we discuss how implementing an effective PCI compliance system can save your business money in bank fees and insurance.
Do it for the Customers
PCI compliance is good for your business, because it’s good for your customers. Protecting your customers’ payment and personal data should be a top priority for your company, and if it’s not you likely won’t have them very long. In our world of everyday cyber-crimes, a data leak can be the fast track to a loss of confidence in your company.
That can be harder than it sounds. One of the largest retailers in the world recently advised us that they were required to ensure the data privacy and security of every one of their PCI devices. For them, that meant over 1 million devices! While adding a new system to more than a million different devices might make you cringe, consider that before they were doing the same thing manually.
Better Bottom Lines
Beyond the obvious time-savings after implementation, we discovered that because of their use of Compliance Checkpoint, they were actually saving the company a fortune.
Large retailers deal with enough transactions, that they are able to bypass the banks and work directly with the credit card companies – partly because they can show such PCI compliance. This saves them having to pay the bank fees associated with transactions, which in the case of a major retailer is a hefty sum indeed.
As icing on the cake (although it’s still a rather significant savings), their insurance fees are also reduced because they can demonstrate that they have effective compliance programs and risk controls in place. The whole situation is analogous to buying a safe car and driving even more safely, for which your auto insurance company lowers your premiums.
By showing sound and sincere business practices to protect customers’ privacy and data and spending time to put better processes into place for compliance, they’re rewarded with a better bottom line.
