Understanding merchant levels

Security at every step

Whether you conduct a few payment processes or millions of transactions every year, you will belong to a particular merchant level. This section determines your merchant level and how you can validate your compliance.

Level Criteria for level Validation requirements
1
  • Any merchant processing over 6 million VISA or MasterCard transactions a year
  • Any compromised merchant
  • Annual onsite security assessment
  • Quarterly network scan may be required if your cardholder data infrastructure is connected to the internet
2
  • Any merchant processing one to six million VISA or MasterCard transactions a year
  • Annual Self Assessment Questionnaire
  • Quarterly network scan may be required if your cardholder data infrastructure is connected to the internet
3
  • Any merchant processing 20,000 to one million VISA or MasterCard e-commerce transactions a year
  • Annual Self Assessment Questionnaire
  • Quarterly network scan may be required if your cardholder data infrastructure is connected to the internet
4
  • Any merchant processing fewer than 20,000 VISA or MasterCard transactions a year
  • All other merchants processing up to one million VISA or MasterCard transactions a year
  • Annual self-assessment questionnaire
  • Quarterly network scan may be required if your cardholder data infrastructure is connected to the internet

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