VISA ADDS $20 MILLION CARROT TO PCI STICK.(Visa U.S.A. Inc.)(Payment Card Industry)(Brief article)

Visa USA announced today it has started a $20 million fund to reward bank acquirers whose largest merchant customers speed up compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Acquirers whose PCI-designated Level 1 or Level 2 merchants have been certified by auditors as fully PCI-compliant by March 31 will be eligible for one-time payments from Visa for each merchant that qualifies. Visa is encouraging acquirers to pass any windfalls from the PCI Compliance Acceleration Program along to merchants, but acquirers could keep awards for other uses, Eduardo Perez, Visa USA vice president of payment system risk, tells CardLine. "We decided to implement both positive …