Visa Announces Technology Milestones

Additionally, Visa announced that is has completed the migration of applications to its new data center in the central U.S. For the first time since launching its global payments processing network, VisaNet, more than 35 years ago, Visa is running multiple authorization engines under one roof, providing superior fail-over technology to complement its multiple data center architecture. This "back-up within a back-up" redundant topology ensures Visa is always available and has abundant processing power, necessary to meet the growing demand for electronic payments.

In the U.S. alone, nearly 15 percent of total Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) is transacted on Visa branded products - that means, for every $100 spent by American consumers in 2005, $14.60 is spent on Visa debit, credit and pre-paid products. Worldwide, 66% of card volume is transacted on Visa branded products, driving the need for continuous technology investments to ensure Visa's advanced technology infrastructure meets the needs of financial institutions, consumers and merchants around the world.

"Our opportunity for growth is significant, with consumers and businesses still spending $21 trillion each year using cash or checks," said John Partridge, President and CEO of Inovant LLC, Visa's IT organization responsible for global transaction processing and technology development. "Our investment in technology has created a global payments network capable of scaling to meet that opportunity, while also providing the flexibility to deliver new and advanced services."

The flexible global infrastructure Visa has created through recent technology investments allows Visa and its card issuers to bring advanced payment products and services to market quickly, and on a global scale. Examples of recent Visa innovations made possible through advanced technology include:

• Account Level Processing: Enables Visa to manage and process cardholder rewards and services at the individual account level in real-time, and allows delivery of those services at the POS. This new functionality drives the Visa Incentive Network, a service that allows merchants and financial institutions to offer loyalty and rewards programs tailored to individual cardholders and enables the delivery of those services in real-time.
• Contactless Payments: Visa has created a flexible infrastructure for contactless payments, enabling card issuers and merchants to offer the contactless feature on any Visa product that best meets the needs of consumers. Contactless payments can apply to credit, debit, or prepaid cards, as well as other form factors, such as mini cards and mobile devices.
• Advanced Risk Solutions: Visa's new authorization platform supports a host of new, real-time services, including Visa's newest fraud detection tool, Advanced Authorization, which enables fraud detection across payment types, in real-time.
• Business Intelligence: Providing added value to issuers by analyzing transaction information, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in business performance as an aid in decision making.

The new authorization platform, the Visa Integrated Processing (V.I.P.) platform, is the result of a multi-year initiative representing the single largest re-engineering project undertaken by Visa. The heart of the re-engineering effort involved replacing a complex web of "legacy" code with a streamlined, layered architecture and modular system design. The result is unprecedented flexibility to add new functions, and ability to deploy advanced technologies. It also significantly reduces the time, complexity, and cost involved in adding innovative products and services or modifying the system. For example, the streamlined platform has greatly reduced the time required for Visa to consolidate the Visa's PLUS network for ATM transactions with its new authorization platform.

"We're very proud of the work that has led to these enormous accomplishments," Partridge said. "The foundation of Visa's success has been its ability to support the global migration to electronic forms of payments through arguably the most powerful, trusted and secure payments network in the world. With these latest technology enhancements, Visa is ready to support and lead the future growth, evolution and innovation in our industry."