SAN FRANCISCO — Visa USA has reported substantial progress in getting merchants, which conduct the largest percentage of card transactions, to comply with industry card data security standards. Credit unions across the country have paid tens of millions of dollars in damages from having card data compromised and have been strong advocates of forcing merchants to comply with industry data standards meant to limit the risk of compromise.

According to Visa, compliance with data standards among the largest merchants moved from just 12% in March 2006 to 77% by end of 2007. Medium sized merchants increased their compliance from 15% at the end of 2006 to 62% as of the end of 2007.

"Visa is working to mitigate the risk of data compromises by securing cardholder information," said Michael E. Smith, head of payment system risk, Visa Inc. "In 2007, more U.S. merchants made good on their commitment to protect cardholder information than any other year. Visa is pleased with the progress of merchant PCI DSS compliance though there is still more to accomplish with among payment system participants," he said.