Erste Card Club Secures Payments with Thales HSMs

Balancing high-volume transactions with growing security expectations

In today’s digital payments landscape, financial institutions face the challenge of delivering seamless transaction experiences while ensuring the highest levels of data security. As consumer expectations grow and regulatory requirements tighten, payment service providers must continually adapt to meet these demands. 

As a transaction acquirer, ECC faced the dual challenge of ensuring stringent security compliance while processing high volumes of transactions efficiently. The organization needed to adhere to PCI DSS standards and prepare for future PCI PIN certification requirements. Additionally, the increasing threat of quantum computing necessitated forward-looking cryptographic strategy.

The deployment of Thales payShield 10K HSMs delivered measurable improvements in security and operational performance. ECC successfully extended its PCI DSS certification through November 2025 and is currently preparing for PCI PIN certification with support from Thales and Alfatec.