Visa Showcases the Future of Money at New York Event

September 25, 2008 at 11:01 AM EDT

Payment Leader Unveils Applications for Android Powered Mobile Handsets, Readies First U.S. Trial of Mobile Money Transfer

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2008--Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today hosted an innovation briefing in New York, during which the company showcased advances in electronic payments that are creating a future of "better money" that is more convenient, more reliable and more secure than cash or checks.

The payments industry leader was joined by a number of prominent innovators including Google, Intel, Nokia and Singapore Post Ltd., who are each expanding the benefits of electronic financial services to consumers in new and emerging marketplaces.

The Visa-powered innovations discussed and demonstrated at the briefing recognize several overall trends in the payments industry, including the convergence of electronic payments and mobile phones; the expansion of electronic payments into new acceptance locations including transit and vending machines; and the importance of extending electronic payments to the millions of "unbanked" and "underbanked" consumers around the world.

"For decades Visa has been changing the way people think about and use money with great success, but there is still tremendous opportunity to extend the benefits of electronic payments to consumers and business around the world," said Bill Sheedy, President, North America, Visa Inc. and host of the briefing. "Capturing that opportunity requires innovative products and ideas that deliver measureable benefits to meet the needs of consumers, merchants and financial institutions. Along with our partners, that's what Visa has shown today, and continues to develop every day."

The event was highlighted by four major announcements of innovative advances in electronic payments and services:

  • Visa Applications for Android: Visa announced it is developing a suite of mobile applications for the Android(TM) platform, which will be available for download on Android-powered handsets and initially available to Chase Visa cardholders. The services will allow Visa cardholders to receive notifications to their mobile devices about transaction activity on their accounts; obtain offers from a wide array of merchants; and use the built-in location-based technology developed by Google to quickly map nearby merchants where they can redeem Visa offers and locate ATMs that accept Visa. In addition, Visa is also developing a payment application that will enable consumers with Visa accounts to make mobile payments in retail locations nationwide, or while on the go, over wireless networks.
  • Visa - Nokia Collaborating on Next Generation Handset: Visa and Nokia (NYSE:NOK), the world's largest mobile handset manufacturer, announced plans today to deliver Visa payment and related services for Nokia's next generation Near-Field Communications (NFC) handsets beginning with the 6212 Classic, which is expected to be available in October 2009. The Visa applications will first be made available for trial use by interested financial institutions. Trials will allow consumers with the 6212 and a relationship with a participating Visa issuing bank to use their handsets for a variety of payment and related services, including remote payments, money transfer, and alerts and notifications.
  • Launch of U.S. Mobile Money Transfer Pilot: Visa and U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) today announced the launch of a mobile money transfer pilot program to allow participating Visa cardholders to use their mobile phones and PDAs to securely send funds directly to another Visa cardholder. The first phase of the program, which is expected to launch by the end of this year, will enable domestic money transfers within the U.S. and will involve key Visa issuers, led by U.S. Bank and as many as 6,000 Visa account holders.
  • Expansion of Visa's Prepaid Services: Visa also announced the expansion of Visa ReadyLink, its prepaid reload service, to enable the reload of eligible Visa prepaid products at ATMs across the U.S. Visa ReadyLink gives consumers a secure and convenient way to purchase and add funds to Visa reloadable prepaid cards, a significant advantage to financially "underserved" consumers - those without a traditional banking relationship or access to a payment card. Visa estimates there are more than 80 million financially underserved consumers in the U.S.

Visa also reported that it has completed stress-testing and optimization of VisaNet, its proprietary, centralized processing system, to ensure adequate capacity for the upcoming holiday shopping season. VisaNet stands ready to process 11,000 transaction messages per second, a rate 45 percent above the 7,387 transaction messages per second sustained during Visa's peak processing hour last year on December 22.

In addition, Visa is preparing for its second annual fall upgrade to its processing systems, a massive undertaking that involves the modification of nearly 5 million lines of code that effect 50,000 systems changes in multiple Visa data centers around the globe.

Visa and its partners displayed a number of payment innovations that are creating the future of money. Demonstrations included a variety of transactions using Visa payWave, Visa's next generation contactless chip technology: paying a fare at a transit turnstile, buying products in vending machines, and completing a purchase quickly at point-of-sale terminals. Using the new Nokia 6212 NFC-enabled handset, Visa demonstrated mobile payment services such as mobile offers, alerts and money transfer.

"Because thousands of financial institutions, millions of merchants and hundreds of millions of cardholders in 170 countries rely on Visa every day for secure, reliable and convenient payments, we simply can not afford complacency. We must continually drive ourselves to remain one step ahead of changing and increasing customer demands - that's our innovation imperative," Sheedy said.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. operates the world's largest retail electronic payments network providing processing services and payment product platforms. This includes consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, which are offered under the Visa, Visa Electron, Interlink and PLUS brands. Visa enjoys unsurpassed acceptance around the world, and Visa/PLUS is one of the world's largest global ATM networks, offering cash access in local currency in more than 170 countries. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com

Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

CONTACT:
Visa Inc.
Elvira Swanson, 415-932-2564
globalmedia@visa.com

SOURCE: Visa Inc.