TAJ Bank Receives PCI DSS Certification

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigeria’s leading non-interest banking products and services provider, TAJ Bank Limited, has received the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification in recognition of its globally recognized information security standards in all areas of its operations.

The lender is among the first CBN-licensed banks since 2015 to be so recognized for its secured services to millions of its growing customers.

The PCI DSS certification is an information security standard created by major card schemes operators (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB) with a set of technical and operational requirements intended to ensure the broad adoption of consistent data security measures by organizations that process, store, or transmit cardholder data.

According to the bank’s management, the certification clearly demonstrates that TAJ Bank has been implementing all necessary operational and technical controls for proper security protection in processes related to cardholder data production, management, and administration lifecycle.

Specifically, the management maintained that the certification validated the non-interest lender’s protection of customers’ card data and reduces the risk of a data breach as well as established the bank’s efficient processes in the detection and prevention of both physical and network-based attacks.

It also added that it will enable the lender to gain improved stakeholders’ confidence in its payment cards processes and transaction systems; and demonstrates TAJBank’s ability to reduce and manage a possible data breach and implications.

Commenting on the global recognition of the bank’s secured services system, the bank’s Managing Director/CEO, Mr Hamid Joda, said: “This is another huge milestone by TAJBank to have secured the PCI DSS certificate.”

“With the PCI DSS certification, this clearly confirms TAJBank’s card operational security efficiency in the Banking industry and also ensures an improved level of protection of payment cards users by ensuring Banks that store, process, and transmit payment card data do so in line with best practices of security requirements”, the world-class banker added.

On the importance of PCI DSS certification to any bank, experts in the industry believe that the globally recognized certification is a validation of a bank’s compliance to CBN requirements for adequate controls around cardholders’ data and reduction of card fraud.