PCI compliance simply means adherence to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, or PCI DSS, which are administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The council was established in 2006 by the major payment card brands – including Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express – to manage security standards for electronic transactions. It is the responsibility of all parties to payment card processing – including businesses, merchant services providers, financial institutions and card issuers – to keep the process safe by achieving and maintaining PCI compliance.