KARACHI: The National Bank of Pakistan has acquired the consultancy services of Risk Associates for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) assessment and its compliance certification for security of digital payments.

The PCIDSS is the global information security standard for the organisations that handle Debit/Credit Cards from major Card Schemes. Accordingly, NBP has engaged M/s Risk Associates for providing the services for PCIDSS Assessment and Certification project.

In this regard a signing ceremony was held on Friday at local hotel. Kashif Hassan MD Risk Associates PCIDSS Consultancy and Syed Alay Raza EVP Chief Information Security Officer NBP signed the contract for the project.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) initially recommended implementation of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard in 2016.

However, with increase in cyber-attacks in various forms against payment card systems, in 2018 SBP recommended all financial institutions and associated service providers for adoption of PCI Standards for Payment Card related IT Infrastructure and Applications.

PCIDSS creates an additional level of protection for Card Issuers by ensuring maximum security for storage, processing and transmission of Card Holder Data. This includes systems, application and infrastructure for the process.

The National Bank of Pakistan is the country's largest public sector commercial bank.

It has the biggest branch network (over 1500) spread across the country and handles many large loan schemes for the Government of Pakistan to facilitate the people.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021