about the north carolina office of the state controller
 

Card Industry Rules

As a participant in OSC's Master Services Agreement with SunTrust Merchant Services, entities are required to comply with all payment card industry rules. This includes those specified by the processing vendor (STMS), as well as those by the issuing card associations (Visa and MasterCard). Many of the rules have fines associated with violations and non-compliance, and some require services to the violating merchant to be terminated. Most of these rules, but not all, are found either in the STMS Operating Guide, or on Visa and MasterCard Websites.