The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), a global standards body for the payment card industry, has appointed Nitin Bhatnagar as Associate Director, India. As part of his new role, Bhatnagar will head PCI SSC’s India outreach efforts and will be responsible for driving awareness and adoption of the PCI security standards for payment card security within India.

To this end, Bhatnagar will closely work with merchants, acquirers, financial institutions, security practitioners, law enforcement and other key stakeholders across the Indian payment ecosystem to promote PCI standards.

Prior to this, Bhatnagar was working with SISA Information Security as Associate Vice President (AVP).

PCI SSC is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies dealing with credit card information maintain a secure environment. PCI SSC is focussing on India as a priority market due to its expanding economy and emphasis on cybersecurity.

Earlier in 2018, the PCI SSC launched a new discount program to become a Participating Organization (PO). India was one of the many countries in the region that will benefit from the program.