Visa U.S.A. Inc. is adopting a carrot-and-stick approach to help drive merchant compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standard that it — along with other credit card companies such as MasterCard International Inc. and American Express Co. — is pushing. The company announced that it has created a new $20 million incentive program under which it will monetarily reward “acquiring” financial institutions if their members are fully compliant with PCI requirements by Aug. 31, 2007. At the same time, acquiring banks that fail to ensure compliance by Sept. 30, 2007, will be assessed fines starting at $5,000 a month for each noncompliant merchant.