There are a number of payment gateways in South Africa that can make accepting payments easier for merchants of all sizes. One of the main benefits of using a payment gateway service is that they can remove the merchant from the scope of PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) responsibility.

In order to help merchants select a payment gateway provider, the Visa Global Register of Service Providers lists the current PCI DSS status of payment providers from around the globe.

The registry allows payment service providers display their compliance with industry security standards, providing clients and merchants a reference point to utilise as part of their due diligence.

Visa advises that merchants only utilise service providers listed on the registry for the outsourcing of payments related services.

The registry provides merchants with service provider information such as company name, company website, corporate headquarter country, region(s) of operation, types of services offered and applicable industry standard/security requirement compliance validation date.

PaymentsAfrika has conducted a review of the registry and compiled a summary of all South African payment gateway providers.

PaymentsAfrika also reached out to the various service providers who were listed as expired and received comments on their current PCI status.

A correspondent from iVeri has confirmed that they are in the process of renewing their PCI certificate.

Setcom confirmed that their PCI audit was successfully completed on 22/01/2016. The Visa website should be updated soon.

Hyphen responded that they are in the process of being validated so at this stage are not ready to be included.

Payfast said that they will be listed in the future as PCI Level 1 Processor compliant.

PCI DSS is a standard created by MasterCard and Visa to ensure that card data is stored securely. It is mandatory that online processors are PCI compliant. Payment Providers are audited annually by a Quality Security Assessors (QSA).

- See more at: http://paymentsafrika.com/payment-news/pci-compliant-payment-gateways-in-south-africa/#sthash.li1zrzcD.dpuf