Our client, a card acquirer, needed to lock down bilateral interchange links with issuer banks across its network, according to strict standards set by global card schemes such as Visa and Mastercard, and by the interbank associations governing those relationships.

These standards mandate the protection of cardholder data in transmission, both domestically and internationally. Every single link into an issuer bank, regardless of geography or the underlying telecom provider, need to meet the same requirements.

The stakes were two-fold:

1. Meeting compliance obligations set by card schemes and interbank associations, with no room for a partial or inconsistent implementation across links.
2. Defending cardholder data against the cyber threats increasingly targeting payment infrastructure, where any weak link in the interchange chain becomes the point of failure for the whole network.

Using a combination of Senetas CN6000 and CN4000 Series encryptors, we delivered robust, high-assurance encryption across the acquirer’s interchange links. This has given the client a consistent standard of protection regardless of which telecom provider carried the link on the other end. The result is resilient communication across diverse network environments, without the acquirer needing to negotiate a different security posture for every issuer relationship.

• Senetas CN6000 and CN4000 Series encryptors installed across the acquirer’s interchange links
• High-assurance encryption applied consistently across domestic and international links to issuer banks
• Compliance supported against global card scheme standards (Visa, Mastercard) and interbank association requirements
• Secure communication maintained across diverse telecom provider networks
• A single, consistent security standard applied across the acquirer’s entire interchange footprint