Quickly! Once the relevant documentation is provided, the requests for payments will be processed. Assuming that the documentation is in order, the request should be processed within thirty days.

To report a data compromise you simply have to call the RGS Claims Department at (888) 545-7133. You will be asked to provide the following items: (1) the notice from the card brand or acquiring bank that stipulates there has been (or there is the suspicion of) a data breach at your covered location; (2) a copy of the invoice provided by the certified PCI DSS auditor; and (3) a contact name and mailing address for the claim settlement to be sent.

Yes! Certification of PCI DSS compliance is not a guarantee that a breach will not occur. The analogy that best describes the situation is this: “You can have the best alarm system in the world, but it is useless if you don’t turn it on.” Also, the Program covers employee theft and the physical theft of data. PCI DSS compliance alone cannot prevent these losses.

Yes! While it is true that merchant accounts that store magnetic stripe data are the most vulnerable, there are a number of other risks. For example, missing or outdated security patches, using vendor supplied default settings and passwords, SQL injections by hackers, unnecessary and vulnerable services on your servers, stolen receipts, stolen computers, employee theft, and skimming can all lead to significant data compromises and subject the merchant account to audits, card replacement costs, and fines.

Absolutely, 90 percent of card data breaches occur at small businesses with less than 1 million transactions a year.

No. However, if a merchant account experiences a breach, the merchant account must become compliant before that merchant account can participate in (or re-enter) the Program.

Any Level 2, 3, or 4 merchant account is eligible, provided it has not already suffered a data compromise. Level 1 merchant accounts are not eligible for this protection.

The Newtek Breach Protection Program provides protection on a per-merchant account basis but an incident and annual limit of $500,000 does apply to a merchant agreement with ten or more protected merchant accounts.

There is NO deductible!

The maximum protection is $100,000 per incident, for each merchant account.

AIG Specialty Insurance Company has collaborated with RGS to create this program. AIG is a well-established, financially strong insurance group whose insurance companies hold “A” ratings from independent third party rating agencies.

If a merchant account suffers a suspected or actual data breach, the business responsible for the merchant account could incur thousands upon thousands of dollars of unexpected costs in the form of audit expenses, card monitoring and replacement expenses, and fines. These costs could significantly affect revenue…and even jeopardize the existence of a business. The Newtek Breach Protection Program reduces a protected merchant account’s monetary exposure when a presumed or actual data compromise occurs, thus providing peace of mind!