Avenues India became the first Indian payment gateway to achieve the new PCI DSS 1.1 Standards of Compliance. This achievement makes it one of the most secure payment gateways in the world and catapults Avenues into an elite global club of payment gateways whose membership can be counted on your fingertips. This achievement covers all the solutions which are currently live - CCAvenue India for INR processing, CCAvenue World for Multicurrency processing, ResAvenue: the reservation solution for the hospitality industry and EventAvenue: the registration and venue management solution for the MICE vertical.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance is a set of security standards that were created by the major credit card companies (American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa International) to protect their customers from increasing identity theft and security breaches.

Says Vishwas Patel, Founder - CEO of Avenues “We have always strived to go beyond the norm in every aspect of our business. Only then can we bring about significant value addition to our merchants. Achieving the PCI Standards is just another example of how we like to push the envelope that much further here in Avenues.”

Says Seana Pitt, Chairperson, PCI Security Standards Council "Ensuring the security of electronic payments is of paramount importance to all stakeholders, not just the payment brands."

About PCI
Consumers have enjoyed using credit and debit cards for many years. However, sophisticated thieves have been able to extract credit and debit card information from unsecured databases and other means. This has resulted in a higher incidence of identity theft, a crime that affects merchant companies, financial institutions, e-commerce companies and individuals.
 
Because of these security breaches, the major credit card companies - American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa - decided to create regulations to help prevent theft of consumers' data. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards were created by MasterCard and agreed to in 2004 by the four major credit card companies. Each of the credit card companies has its own term for these standards. On June 30, 2005, the regulations took effect.
 
The American Express program is called Data Security Operating Policy (DSOP); the Discover program is called Discover Information Security and Compliance (DISC);The MasterCard program is called MasterCard Site Data Protection (SDP); and the Visa program is called Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP).

About PCI Security Standards Council:
In September of 2006, the five leading payment brands formed an independent council to manage the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard. American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International saw the need to secure payment account data in a globally consistent manner. The new council worked to develop a system that would be more accessible and efficient. As a result, the ongoing monitoring and development will benefit more than one billion payment card users.

The Goals of PCI Standards:

	Develop and maintain a global, industry-wide technical data security standard for the protection of accountholder account information;
	Reduce costs and lead times for Data Security Standard implementation and compliance by establishing common technical standards and audit procedures for use by all payment brands;
	Provide a list of globally available, qualified security solution providers via its Web site to help the industry achieve compliance;
	Lead training, education, and a streamlined process for certifying Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) and Approved Scanning Vendors (ASVs), providing a single source of approval recognized by all five founding members; and
	Provide a transparent forum in which all stakeholders can provide input into the ongoing development, enhancement and dissemination of data security standards.

About Avenues
Avenues is a profitable, debt-free company and currently services thousands of eMerchants worldwide through its solutions www.CCAvenue.com, www.ResAvenue.com, www.EventAvenue.com, www.MembersAvenue.com, www.TrustAvenue.com, www.BpoAvenue.com. It is the largest integrated eCommerce solutions provider in South Asia. Avenues has shown revenue growth and profit growth consistently, year on year. Avenues is incorporated in India, and has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, and USA. The Avenues support and development center is based in Mumbai, India. The total strength of the Avenues team is currently 120 personnel, spanning across all disciplines. For more information, log onto: www.Avenues.info.