Visa introduces commercial incentives for its Authenticated Payment program

[September 4th 2001]

Visa International has announced that its Board of Directors has approved commercial incentives to promote the worldwide rollout of Visa Authenticated Payment, Visa's most comprehensive e-commerce program. It is designed to vastly improve the payment service for e-merchants, consumers and Visa members by enhancing convenience, acceptance and security.

With Visa Authenticated Payment, cardholders will be better protected while shopping online because Issuers will be able to authenticate their cardholders (for example, by checking a password or other means of identification entered by the cardholder) during the online payment transaction and notify the e-merchant in real time that the buyer is the actual cardholder.

The newly adopted commercial incentives provide protections and guarantees to participating e-merchants that were previously only available in the physical world (in a face-to-face transaction). By implementing Visa Authenticated Payment, e-merchants will be better able to sell and ship goods to any of Visa's cardholders that carry over one billion cards worldwide. They will know that the goods they sell will be paid for since the cardholder's issuer has validated him/her and approved the transaction. With these new protections, fraud and customer disputes will be significantly reduced and consumers will become increasingly confident about shopping online, leading to increased sales volume for e-merchants.

"We know that consumers and e-merchants want more security and better protection for shopping on the Internet, and we're delivering that extra level of protection with Visa Authenticated Payment, our next generation of payment security," said Malcolm Williamson, CEO of Visa International. "Consumers will know that they can shop safely and conveniently while preventing fraud on their card, and e-merchants will know they are dealing with a legitimate cardholder anywhere in the world."

Visa is actively working with financial institutions and e-merchants around the world to deploy the program, which is expected to reduce disputed transactions by at least 50%. To ensure the successful implementation of Visa Authenticated Payment, Visa has partnered with more than 60 Internet Solution Providers and management consulting firms worldwide including Accenture, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, IBM, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems

Visa reminded its e-merchants that as of June 1, 2001, they are required to post their privacy policy and transaction security capability on their web site so that cardholders know what type of protections are in place when they shop online. Any new e-merchant will also be subject to this requirement via their merchant agreement with their Acquirer.

The Visa International Board has also approved a requirement that, effective January 1, 2002, web merchants must offer a secure, encrypted environment to cardholders during their online purchase. Any e-merchant participating in Visa Authenticated Payment satisfies this requirement. By April 1, 2003, Visa acquirers will be required to support 3-D Secure for their online merchants.

Links
Visa International		http://www.visa.com