A meetings card from Visa is in the USA now

A world leader in plastic card industry, Visa, has announced the partnership with Arcaneo, provider of meetings technology, and also the launch of a meetings card. At the moment this card is available only in the USA and in Canada but it is expected that in a near future the coverage area will be wider. So, it is expected that very soon Visa will launch the product in its Central Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Being more specific, the launch in the EU countries is planned in the third quarter of this year and in Asia/Pacific area in the coming year. The card also launched with Visa's multinational program, which included top issuers serving about 50 key markets where those multinational companies operate. Those who want to use the Visa Meetings should not necessarily be the clients of Visa Company.

According to Louis Goodson, senior business leader for Visa Commercial Solutions, the meetings card would combine offerings from Visa's existing corporate and purchasing cards. He also said that every company needs a separate approach in view of its individuality; specific offerings of the meetings card would vary based on a company's needs, and can include authorization control and limited-use capabilities.

The cards are intended for individual buyers or for individual meetings. For smaller companies Visa proposes to incorporate all capabilities of the meetings card into a one-card program.

"We knew that there would be a need for companies that wanted to have not only reporting for meetings after the fact, but really wanted to have an end-to-end solution. Their solution provides not only the back-end reconciliation reporting capabilities, but also allows for meeting planners to plan at a detailed level up front," said Goodson.

It is necessary to note that Visa is not the first company that has made such a decision. Last year StarCite and American Express have announced an integrated meetings payment system, allowing uploading of buyers' card data into StarCite's meetings budgeting tool.