Tannen & Associates is a merchant credit card services company serving small to mid-size businesses.  They also specialize in educating their clients about new security standards in the payment card industry.

Prior to Founding Tannen & Associates, Mark Tannen worked for over three years as a sales agent for one of the fastest growing credit card processing companies in the country. During this time, he began to realize the major inconsistencies that were occurring across the board in terms of PCI compliance education.

In 2004, the major card brands, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB International formed the PCI Security Standards Council, whose mission is to enhance payment account data security by driving education and awareness of the PCI Security Standards.

This organization developed a set of standards which required processors to:

   (1) ensure their merchants were meeting current PCI compliance guidelines

   (2) provide the merchants with the education to achieve PCI compliance

However, each processor has been able to act autonomously as to how they handle their own merchants. There is no formalized process or quality control measures to ensure that merchants are getting the comprehensive education that they need from their processor in order to protect the card holder data of their customers.

Most merchants currently fall short of being in compliance with new security standards because they are simply not aware of the necessity of having written policies and procedures, and a documented security plan in place. They think that because they are meeting the latest technological requirements, that they are in compliance. This common misconception can have potentially devastating financial implications on a business in the event of a security breach.

Tannen & Associates has identified the flaws in the compliance education system and is passionate about working along side its clients to help them protect their business. We provide an in-depth review of our merchant’s current technological and internal systems, and educate them on any areas where they do not meet the current standards.

Mark Tannen is an agent of United Bank Card, a registered ISO/MSP of First National Bank of Omaha.