MasterCard Backs Off PCI Deadline

From StorefrontBacktalk: MasterCard has quietly backed off from a much-complained-about plan to require Level 2 merchants — for the first time — to have an on-site QSA assessment completed by the end of 2010. Having a New Year’s Eve deadline — on the heels of the all-encompassing holiday season — was a recipe for tons of missed deadlines.

The first MasterCard change made this month was pushing the Dec. 31, 2010, deadline back six months, to June 30, 2011. But MasterCard has also made two other key PCI changes. It has redefined what Level a retailer is (Level 1, 2, 3 or 4) to explicitly mirror whatever level Visa has determined. (The language used to say “competing brand.”) The last of the changes is to allow Level 1 and Level 2 retailers to perform their own assessments—using the retailer’s own salaried audit staff—as long as those audit staffers have passed PCI-approved training courses.