Visa

Visa Inc announced its plans to introduce new fee scheme for US merchants. In a conference call with analysts Visa Chief Executive Joseph Saunders said the company would introduce a network participation fee in the United States for all of its debit, credit and prepaid card services.

Among other things in the new policy Visa will lower the variable rate charged for transactions.

The move comes in the wake of new fee structure that will take effect later this year under 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Isis, a joint venture company conjointly owned by AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, announced the new partnership with Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express — all four of the major US payments networks.

"Isis' relationships with all four payment networks means that with Isis-enabled phones and payment terminals in place, merchants and consumers will have ubiquity and freedom of choice when it comes to payment network acceptance," says the company.

WikiLeals filed an official complaint with the European Commission against Visa and MasterCard on allegations the credit card networks reject processing donations to the whistleblower website. The complaint was filed in association with Icelandic IT company DataCell.

Visa and MasterCard blocked WikiLeaks from collecting funds from donors in December 2010.

According to the filing submitted with the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission, Visa and MasterCard breached antitrust provisions set out by Articles 101 and 102 of the EU Treaty.

Again WikiLeaks was denied to have its donations being processed. Last week the whistleblowing website hoped that DataCell would be able to start processing donations, for it had made an agreement with the Icelandic bank Valitor to have Visa and Mastercard payments processed by the bank.

DataCell stated it had always said that the payments were processed for WikiLeaks when entering a deal with Valitor. But the latter denies the allegation with spokeswoman Jonina Ingvadottir saying:

WikiLeaks will sue Visa and MasterCard for their refusal to process donations to the website. The whistle-blower service is now working with the lawyers in Denmark and Iceland along with its credit card processing partner DataCell to launch a lawsuit against the card schemes for "engaging in an unlawful, US influenced, financial blockade".

Visa says that the number of its branded contactless cards in the UK will reach about 20 million by the year end. The growth is expected to be driven by outlets like McDonald’s.

As of March 2011 there were 13 million Visa payWave cards in circulation, which is a growth from 8 million recorded last June.

McDonald’s is actively implementing the technology across its network of 1200 restaurants in the UK and Starbucks is also following the trend. Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of America have all joined Barclays in issuing cards.
 

Visa Inc announced the launch of next generation payment solutions to replicate the ease, reliability and security of Visa point-of-sale payments within traditional and digital eCommerce, mobile commerce and burgeoning social networking commerce environments.

According to the official statement the new offering will include a secure cross-channel digital wallet and a range of customized mobile payments services that address the specific requirements of geographic markets around the world.

Visa Inc. has announced beginning of cooperation with Gap to deliver real-time discounts and promotions to consumers via SMS text messages. Gap customers who opt-in to participate in the service are notified of money-saving discounts or promotions in real-time while shopping.  

According to Bloomberg the state of Hawaii dropped out of a lawsuit accusing American Express Co. of violating federal law by preventing merchants from steering customers to cheaper forms of payment. 

Visa Inc. has announced that on March 31, 2011, it had deposited $400 million into the litigation escrow account previously established under the Company's retrospective responsibility plan. Under the terms of the Plan, the $400 million deposit has the effect of a repurchase by the Company of 5,419,273 shares of class A common stock at approximately $73.81 per share, on an as-converted basis, by reducing the as-converted class B common stock share count from 125,253,161 to 119,833,888.

Visa Inc posted its year results for Latin America and Caribbean businesses. During the year ended December 31, 2010 the company achieved regional payments volume growth of 23.2% with Brazil recording 24.6%, Mexico 16.8%, and the rest of Latin America and Caribbean as a group reporting a 22.8% yearly growth.

Visa is implementing a new money transfer service to allow customers send funds in real-time to other cards using the VisaNet network. For the first time the service was activated by Russia's largest payment kiosk operator, 1st Processing Bank (QIWI Group), and Ukraine's largest bank, PrivatBank earlier this week. Now Visa plans international roll-out.

Using the service customers just specify their Visa card number to initiate the payment. It eliminates any need to fill out different forms and give away routing information such as bank codes and branch addresses.

Lobbyists for big banks and credit card companies started lobbying the Congress to postpone implementation of the regulation limiting credit card fees charged for transactions.

Visa Inc. has announced its intention to make cash transfers in disaster relief faster, more effective and more secure by joining the Cash Learning Partnership. The company will support the development of knowledge and tools that will help humanitarian organizations deliver relief funds quickly and efficiently to people affected by natural disasters and other emergencies.

DeviceFidelity Inc has expanded the number of supported smartphones compatible with its In2Pay™ microSD technology. Newly added models include Blackberry® Tour™ 9630, and Android based Samsung Epic™ 4G, Samsung Fascinate™, Mesmerize and Showcase.

All the five new smartphone models completed Visa Inc.’s compliance testing process including extensive technical, security and usability tests.