Univate is a PCI compliance service provider for Philippine businesses that store, process or transmit cardholder data. Our PCI DSS consultants run the gap assessment and PCI readiness assessment, fix what the scope demands, arrange PCI penetration testing and ASV scans, and support you through the PCI compliance audit to ROC or SAQ sign-off. You get your scope, your merchant level and an honest view of PCI DSS certification cost and audit charges before any work starts. We support teams in Makati, BGC, Ortigas, Cebu and Davao, aligned to BSP payment system circulars, the NRPS framework and InstaPay and PESONet participation rules.
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Most Philippine companies start PCI DSS certification because an acquiring bank, a card brand or an overseas client set a deadline. The certificate answers that demand once, instead of a new security questionnaire every renewal, and PCI compliance support from one team keeps the cost of staying compliant predictable.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas circulars require supervised institutions to run a real information security framework with board oversight, third party controls and incident reporting. PCI DSS compliance gives you the documented control set and evidence trail that examiners and NRPS, InstaPay and PESONet participation reviews ask to see.
Wallets, marketplaces and card not present checkout have pushed transaction volumes up across the country, which pushes merchants into higher PCI levels faster than they expect. A business sitting on SAQ today can be pulled into a full PCI DSS audit next year, so scope and level need reviewing annually, not once.
Visa and Mastercard mandate PCI DSS through acquiring banks, and your acquirer is the party that confirms your level and validation route. Philippine merchants chasing cross border partnerships or platform integrations are asked for an AOC before contracts are signed, not after.
If cardholder data touches your systems, your staff or your call floor, PCI DSS applies. These are the sectors that most often ask us for PCI compliance services, PCI DSS consulting and PCI assessment support.
Take the full compliance programme or only the piece you are missing. Each of these PCI services and PCI DSS compliance services is scoped and priced on its own.
A control by control PCI gap assessment against all 12 PCI DSS v4.0 requirements, which doubles as your PCI DSS readiness assessment before the formal audit. You get a findings sheet separating what already works, what works but is undocumented, and what is genuinely missing, each line with an owner and an effort estimate.
Scope is the single biggest driver of effort and cost. We map where card data enters, rests and leaves, then design segmentation that pulls systems out of the cardholder data environment so fewer controls and fewer audit days apply.
Internal and external PCI penetration testing (PCI DSS penetration testing) plus segmentation testing under Requirement 11, with quarterly ASV scans arranged alongside. Reports come with reproduction steps and a retest so findings actually close.
Readiness walkthrough, evidence pack assembly and support through the PCI DSS audit to Report on Compliance for Level 1 merchants and service providers. Any finding raised is turned into a root cause and a corrective action we help you close.
Choosing the wrong SAQ type is the most common self validation mistake. We confirm the right questionnaire for how you actually take payments, then complete it with you and prepare the Attestation of Compliance for your acquirer.
Close the gaps, then keep them closed. Logging, file integrity monitoring, patch cadence, access reviews and quarterly scans set up as a running calendar so next year is a renewal and not a rebuild.
Requirements 3 and 4 in practice: protecting stored account data, truncation and masking, strong cryptography in transit, and key custody procedures that an assessor can actually verify rather than take on trust.
Role based training for staff who handle card data. For BPO and contact centre floors we cover clean desk, device and paper rules, call recording pause and DTMF handling, because those are the controls assessors sample first.
Move a v3.2.1 programme onto v4.0, including targeted risk analyses, the customised approach where it helps, and the newer authentication and scripting requirements that catch most teams out at their first v4.0 assessment.
Your level comes from annual transaction volume, and your acquiring bank confirms it. The level decides whether you face a full PCI DSS audit or a self assessment.
PCI DSS v4.0 is organised around 12 core requirements. Your gap analysis, your evidence pack and the PCI DSS audit all work from this list.
Firewalls and network rules that keep the cardholder data environment separated.
Remove vendor defaults and harden every system component in scope.
Encrypt, truncate or mask stored card data, and stop storing what you do not need.
Strong cryptography for card data crossing open or public networks.
Anti-malware coverage, kept current, on every system commonly affected.
Secure development, change control and a patch cadence you can evidence.
Least privilege, with access granted by role and reviewed on a schedule.
Unique IDs, no shared logins, and multi-factor authentication into the CDE.
Facility, media and device controls, including payment terminal inspection.
Audit trails, daily review and time synchronisation across in-scope systems.
Quarterly ASV scans, internal scans and annual PCI DSS penetration testing.
Policies, risk analyses, third party oversight and an incident response plan.
Eight steps from first call to attestation. You always know which step you are on, who owns the next action and what it costs.
Understand how you take payments and confirm your merchant level with your acquirer.
Map the cardholder data environment and everything connected to it, then trim where we can.
Run the PCI DSS readiness assessment and assess current controls against PCI DSS v4.0 and produce the priced remediation list.
Sequence the fixes by risk and dependency, with a named owner against each item.
Deploy the controls, policies and evidence capture so proof exists from day one.
ASV scans, internal scans and PCI DSS penetration testing, including segmentation checks.
Formal assessment for ROC, or guided SAQ completion, with us alongside your team.
AOC issued, then the quarterly and annual calendar set so compliance stays live.
What Philippine businesses actually get once the attestation is signed and the controls are running.
Documented controls that answer examiner questions without a scramble.
Stay in good standing with the bank that lets you take card payments.
Send an AOC instead of stalling in a partner security review.
Segmentation and encryption limit what an attacker can reach.
Non-compliance fees and post-breach liability both sit on the merchant.
Security becomes a checkable fact rather than a marketing line.
One attestation replaces repeated questionnaire cycles with each client.
Payment-handling BPO work is routinely gated on PCI DSS compliance.
The same controls and evidence carry into your next framework.
PCI compliance cost has two halves people often confuse: the consulting work to get ready, and the assessment itself. Scope drives both, so the PCI cost and the PCI DSS charges for a small SAQ merchant look very different from a Level 1 service provider. Indicative starting points for PCI DSS certification price and PCI compliance charges are below, with a written quote once we know your environment.
* Prices in Philippine Pesos (₱). Final pricing depends on scope, environment complexity, and compliance level.
Number of in-scope systems, locations, call floors and payment channels sets the assessment effort. Good segmentation done early is the cheapest way to bring PCI DSS audit cost down.
A business already running MFA, logging, patching and access reviews needs far less build work. The gap analysis tells you where you stand before you commit to a number.
ASV scanning and PCI DSS penetration testing are separate line items, priced by IP count and application complexity, and repeat on a quarterly or annual cycle.
A Level 1 PCI DSS audit ending in a ROC costs considerably more than a guided SAQ. Confirming your level with your acquirer first avoids paying for the wrong route.
PCI DSS compliance is validated every year, with scanning through the year. Budget it as a recurring line rather than a one-off project cost.
Gaps sometimes need real spend on MFA, SIEM or logging, file integrity monitoring or terminal replacement. We flag these during gap analysis so they land in your budget early.
The questions Philippine businesses ask most often about levels, audit, penetration testing and cost.
PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, the global rule set for protecting cardholder data. In the Philippines it reaches you two ways: the card brands enforce it through your acquiring bank, and BSP expects supervised institutions to run a serious information security framework. PCI DSS compliance satisfies both with one control set.
PCI DSS audit cost and overall PCI DSS certification cost are driven by scope, not by company size. The variables are how many systems sit inside the cardholder data environment, how many sites and call floors are in scope, your merchant level, and whether you validate by ROC or SAQ. Testing is separate again, priced by IP count and application complexity. We scope first, then issue a written fixed fee rather than an open day rate. See the pricing table above for indicative starting points.
People use both terms for the same outcome. Strictly, PCI DSS compliance is the state of meeting the 12 requirements, and what you receive is validation evidence: a Report on Compliance or a completed Self Assessment Questionnaire, each with a signed Attestation of Compliance. When a client asks for your PCI compliance certification, the AOC is the document they want.
Requirement 11 calls for regular testing. In practice that means quarterly ASV scans from an approved vendor, internal vulnerability scans, and penetration testing at least annually and after significant change. If you rely on segmentation to keep systems out of scope, that segmentation must be tested too, otherwise an assessor can pull those systems back into your cardholder data environment.
BSP circulars require supervised financial institutions to implement information security and IT risk management frameworks with board level accountability. PCI DSS is the standard most commonly used to demonstrate control over payment card data within that framework, and card brand rules apply independently of any regulator.
It depends on whether card data touches your systems. If you accept cards and your platform, staff or servers see the card number, PCI DSS applies to you. If a hosted payment page keeps card data entirely away from your environment, your obligations shrink significantly but do not vanish. We confirm this during scoping before quoting anything.
Levels follow annual transaction volume: Level 1 above six million, Level 2 between one and six million, Level 3 between twenty thousand and one million e-commerce transactions, Level 4 below that. Your acquiring bank confirms the level and the validation route, so ask them in writing before you buy a service. A card brand can also escalate a merchant after a breach.
Three to six months is typical for a full programme, depending on your starting position, scope complexity and how quickly remediation gets done. A well scoped SAQ route can finish in four to eight weeks. The timeline firms up after gap analysis, because that is the point where remaining work is known rather than estimated.
A Report on Compliance is a detailed assessment produced by a qualified assessor, normally for Level 1 merchants and service providers. A Self Assessment Questionnaire is a self validation route for lower levels, with several types depending on how you accept payments. Both end in an Attestation of Compliance, but they differ sharply in effort, evidence depth and cost.
Yes, where agents handle card data for clients. Contact centre environments carry specific controls: call recording pause or DTMF suppression, clean desk and no personal device rules on the floor, restricted physical access and tight logging. International principals usually write PCI DSS compliance into the contract, so it becomes a commercial requirement as well as a security one.
Card brands levy non-compliance fees through the acquiring bank, and those escalate the longer the gap runs. Beyond fees, an acquirer can raise your transaction rates or withdraw card acceptance entirely. After a breach the merchant carries forensic costs and card reissuance liability, and a BSP supervised entity faces regulatory follow up on top.
Version 4.0 keeps the 12 requirements but tightens authentication, adds targeted risk analyses, brings payment page scripts under control, and introduces a customised approach for organisations that can evidence an alternative control meets the objective. Teams moving from v3.2.1 usually find authentication and script management are where the real work sits.
PCI compliance cost, often searched as PCI DSS cost or PCI certification cost, is the total of consulting, testing, assessment and remediation spend, not a single fee. The PCI DSS compliance cost you see in a quote usually splits into the gap assessment, control build, ASV scanning and PCI DSS penetration testing, and the audit or SAQ work. PCI compliance price rises with the number of in-scope systems, sites and payment channels, and with your merchant level. A Level 1 PCI DSS compliance certification cost is far higher than a guided SAQ. We list each line separately so you can see what the PCI DSS charges cover.
A PCI DSS readiness assessment is a dry run of the audit: we test your controls and evidence the way an assessor will, and tell you whether you are ready to proceed. A PCI DSS gap assessment, also called a PCI gap assessment, is the control by control comparison against the 12 requirements that finds what is missing. In practice they are done together, so the PCI readiness assessment ends with a prioritised remediation list, owners and effort estimates before you book the formal PCI assessment.
Start with what you actually need. A qualified security assessor company is the firm that performs the formal assessment and signs a Report on Compliance for Level 1 merchants and service providers. A PCI compliance provider or consultant prepares you for it. When you compare PCI DSS vendors and PCI compliance companies, ask about experience in your sector, whether scanning and penetration testing are included or separate, who owns remediation, and whether the fee is fixed. Univate runs the preparation, testing and audit support in one engagement.
You can attempt PCI DSS without outside help, but most Philippine teams hire a PCI compliance consultant because scoping errors and a wrong SAQ type are expensive to fix later. PCI DSS consulting covers scoping, gap assessment, remediation planning, policy writing, staff training, penetration testing coordination and audit preparation. Our PCI DSS compliance consultants stay on through the audit and the annual revalidation, so the PCI compliance support does not end when the first report is signed.
Yes. Univate Solutions has a Philippines office at 4954 2F JKSA Building, Antonio Arnaiz Ave. Cor Mayor St., Pio Del Pilar, Makati City 1230. Our local team runs on-site work and in-person consultation across Metro Manila and the wider Philippines.
Whether you are starting with a PCI gap assessment, need PCI penetration testing before your assessment window, or want a defensible view of PCI cost before taking a proposal to your board, Univate delivers PCI DSS certification services end to end. If you are comparing PCI companies, PCI DSS companies, PCI DSS compliance companies, PCI compliance vendors and PCI compliance providers, you will find that most split consulting, testing and audit across different firms. We keep them in one engagement. We work with banks, fintech, e-commerce, hospitality and BPO teams across the country, aligning every programme to PCI DSS v4.0, BSP payment system expectations and your acquirer's validation requirements, so PCI compliance certification becomes a controlled project with a date on it rather than an open ended security exercise.
Each engagement below is scoped and priced separately, so you can start exactly where you are.
Bring your environment into line with all 12 PCI DSS v4.0 requirements and keep it there through the annual validation cycle.
The full programme from scoping to signed Attestation of Compliance, run as a project with named owners and dated milestones.
Modular PCI DSS certification services covering documentation, control build, training and assessment support, taken singly or bundled.
Readiness review, evidence pack and support through the PCI DSS audit to Report on Compliance or guided SAQ completion.
Ongoing PCI DSS compliance services: quarterly scanning, access reviews, policy upkeep and annual revalidation on a fixed calendar.
Help selecting the right validation route so your PCI compliance certification evidence matches what your acquirer and clients actually ask for.
A written breakdown of PCI DSS audit cost across consulting, testing, tooling and remediation, modelled over the annual cycle.
Internal, external and segmentation PCI DSS penetration testing under Requirement 11, with retesting included so findings close.
End to end PCI compliance services for Philippine merchants and service providers, from first scoping call through to attestation.
A fixed fee quote that separates consulting, testing and assessment, so PCI compliance cost, PCI compliance charges and PCI DSS certification price are clear before you start.
Ongoing PCI compliance support between audits: quarterly scans, evidence upkeep, change reviews and answers when your acquirer or client asks a question.
A PCI DSS readiness assessment and PCI gap assessment in one exercise, ending in a prioritised plan with owners, effort and dates.
PCI DSS consulting from scoping to attestation, delivered by PCI DSS compliance consultants who stay through the audit and the annual cycle.
A PCI compliance assessment and PCI compliance audit run to the route your acquirer set, with a Qualified Security Assessor company engaged where a ROC is required.
One PCI compliance service provider for consulting, PCI DSS services, testing and audit support, so you manage one team and one fee.