Heritage Bank Plc says it has obtained recertification on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, version 3.2, following the achievement of the International Organisation for Standardisation ISO 27001:2013 recertification.
The bank said in a statement it was the first bank to issue a transparent MasterCard debit card in sub-Saharan Africa and pioneered the mPOS in response to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s cashless initiative.
The Divisional Head, Corporate Communications, Heritage Bank, Fela Ibidapo, explained that the PCI DSS was a proprietary information security standard for organisations that process, store, transmit or access cardholder information for major debit, credit, prepaid, e-purse, Automated Teller Machine and Point of Sale cards.
He said the standard’s framework originated from the five global payment brand programmes ― VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB ― and was designed to increase cardholder data controls to reduce credit card fraud.
According to him, any enterprise that falls within the scope of the standard must implement it and seek compliance.
Ibidapo added that the PCI DSS helped enterprises to dramatically reduce credit card fraud and had brought significant additional benefits, including increased bank/consumer credibility, reduced/optimised business impact and risk, and fewer breaches/increased security awareness.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo, described the recertification as an indicator that the bank consistently had its customers’ interest at the core of its business operations.