Payments Therapist Expands PCI Compliance Practice, Appoints Former FIS Vice President Wes Shattler to Lead New Services

Payments Therapist, a specialized payments consulting firm, announces the addition of former FIS Vice President Wes Shattler to spearhead its expanded PCI compliance practice, introducing a comprehensive approach to helping fintech companies navigate the operational and technical complexities of payment security.

Shattler joins the firm as Senior Partner, PCI Services, bringing extensive enterprise-level cybersecurity, risk management, and compliance experience to the firm’s expanding practice. His appointment supports Payments Therapist’s investment in specialized PCI leadership and its ability to help clients manage increasingly complex compliance responsibilities. To address the growing need for dedicated compliance leadership, the expansion introduces two complementary service offerings, PCI Governance as a Service and Handling Your First PCI Assessment. Together, these programs provide organizations with experienced guidance through formal assessment preparation and ongoing compliance management.

The initiative primarily serves growing fintech companies, payment facilitators (PayFacs), independent software vendors (ISVs), and registered independent sales organizations (ISOs) seeking to strengthen their PCI programs while managing the demands of business growth.

Bringing Experienced Leadership to an Increasingly Complex Compliance Environment For organizations operating within the payments ecosystem, PCI compliance requires coordination across multiple departments, systems, and external partners. As businesses grow, changes in technology, payment infrastructure, vendor relationships, and operational processes can introduce additional responsibilities that require ongoing oversight.

Despite these demands, many organizations continue to manage PCI through periodic assessment preparation, with responsibilities distributed across security, engineering, compliance, and executive leadership.

This fragmented approach can lead to inconsistent documentation, unclear accountability, delayed remediation, and significant disruption as assessment deadlines approach.

Shattler's appointment is intended to help address these challenges by bringing experienced payments-industry leadership directly into the management of client PCI programs.

Shattler brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity, risk management, and compliance leadership, including extensive experience managing enterprise-scale assurance programs. During his career, he has supported more than 500 PCI assessments and compliance initiatives and served three consecutive terms on the PCI Security Standards Council Board of Advisors. His experience combines industry standards leadership with practical expertise in managing complex security and compliance programs, giving him an understanding of the relationship between payment technology, operational execution, compliance obligations, and organizational accountability.

His role at Payments Therapist will include helping clients establish governance structures, coordinate internal stakeholders, prepare for assessments, organize compliance evidence, and maintain consistent oversight of PCI responsibilities.

"PCI compliance touches nearly every part of a payments organization, yet the responsibility for managing it is often spread across teams that already have demanding priorities," says Shattler. "Our objective is to bring those responsibilities together under a coordinated program that gives organizations greater visibility, clearer accountability, and a more sustainable approach to compliance."

Introducing PCI Governance as a Service At the center of the expanded practice is PCI Governance as a Service, an ongoing engagement model that provides organizations with dedicated program leadership and coordination throughout the year.

The service addresses a common operational challenge: maintaining the policies, evidence, documentation, control ownership, and remediation activities required to support an effective PCI program between formal assessments.

Rather than relying on periodic preparation efforts, Payments Therapist helps clients establish processes that integrate compliance responsibilities into their regular business operations.

The program includes ongoing coordination with internal stakeholders, tracking outstanding requirements, maintaining compliance documentation, coordinating and tracking remediation activities, and preparing for interactions with Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs).

For growing fintech companies, this model provides access to specialized PCI leadership without requiring them to independently build and maintain an equivalent internal governance function.

It also helps organizations reduce the operational burden placed on technical and executive teams during assessment periods.

"Many businesses have capable technical and compliance teams, but no single person responsible for keeping the entire PCI program moving throughout the year," says Jason Kafer, founder of Payments Therapist. “As the payments industry continues to evolve, we’re seeing a demand for specialized expertise that helps organizations manage increasingly complex requirements. Expanding our PCI practice and bringing Wes onto our leadership team allows us to address that demand with the kind of senior-level experience and hands-on support that defines our consulting model, connecting the people, processes, and responsibilities involved."

Helping Companies Navigate Their First PCI Assessment The expanded practice also introduces Handling Your First PCI Assessment, a dedicated program for organizations preparing to undergo formal PCI validation for the first time.

For businesses entering the assessment process, understanding the requirements can be challenging, particularly when PCI responsibilities intersect with technology architecture, payment integrations, vendor relationships, and internal operating procedures.

Payments Therapist provides hands-on assistance with scope review, readiness evaluations, gap identification, documentation preparation, evidence organization, stakeholder coordination, and assessor communications.

The program helps organizations approach their first assessment with an established plan and a clearer understanding of their responsibilities.

After the initial assessment, clients can transition to ongoing governance support to maintain the program as their operations evolve.

Expanding the Payments Therapist Model The expanded PCI practice reflects Payments Therapist's broader philosophy of bringing experienced industry practitioners into complex situations that require more than conventional advisory services.

Founded by Jason Kafer, the firm works across payment strategy, infrastructure, technology, security, compliance, risk, operations, and revenue, helping organizations address challenges that frequently span multiple business functions.

Its approach emphasizes practical execution, direct involvement, and specialized expertise.

With Shattler leading its expanded PCI practice, Payments Therapist is extending its specialized consulting model to provide clients with dedicated PCI governance and assessment preparation services. The expansion complements the firm’s existing expertise across payment strategy, technology, security, risk, and operations.

By combining senior-level industry leadership with practical, ongoing program support, Payments Therapist aims to help growing payments organizations establish sustainable compliance programs, strengthen internal accountability, and manage increasingly complex regulatory and operational responsibilities.

For more information about Payments Therapist and its PCI services, visit paymentstherapist.com.

About Payments Therapist Payments Therapist is a specialized payments consulting firm that helps fintech companies, financial institutions, payment facilitators, independent software vendors, processors, and complex merchants diagnose and solve challenging payments problems. The firm provides senior-led expertise across payment strategy, infrastructure, security, compliance, risk, operations, technology, and revenue, helping organizations navigate complex situations through practical, hands-on solutions.