Viewpoints

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PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL CURRENCY

Mar 21, 2013

Partnerships

Voices of Inclusion: Premal Shah, Kiva.org

From the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, Visa’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, Douglas Sabo, continues a series of conversations with leaders from the financial inclusion community.

Next up, we speak with Premal Shah, President of Kiva.org. While best known for its work connecting the Internet community with entrepreneurs in emerging markets, Kiva.org has expanded its scope to include support for aspiring entrepreneurs in the U.S. We speak to Premal during the launch event for Kiva City Little Rock, the latest addition to the Kiva City initiative that expands the availability of financial resources to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Kiva City is a partnership between Kiva and Visa Inc. launched at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in June 2011.

Watch more videos in the “Voices of Inclusion” series.

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Posted by: Douglas Sabo, Visa Corporate Responsibility on March 21, 2013 at 9:11 am

Category: Financial Inclusion, Partnerships
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Feb 26, 2013

Postcards From #MWC13: Greetings from Bill Gajda

Greetings from Barcelona!

Mobile World Congress is underway and Visa’s presence is stronger than ever. With mobile commerce and mobile payments listed among MWC13’s top three agenda items, Visa’s Head of Mobile Bill Gajda (@billgajda) welcomes those in person and online to #MWC13.  For those attending the show, please drop byVisa’s booth  at Hall 6, Booth 6E40.

As we continue to feature highlights from the show  floor, we welcome you to share comments and questions around Mobile World Congress.  Follow us @VisaNews for updates from #MWC13!

Watch the clip below to see a welcome note from Bill:

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Posted by: Lucas Mast, Visa Corporate Relations on February 26, 2013 at 6:26 am

Category: Innovation, Mobile, Partnerships
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Feb 25, 2013

Postcards from #MWC13: Visa’s Bill Gajda Talks NFC

Kicking off Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona today, Visa’s Head of Global Mobile Products Bill Gajda (@billgajda) particpated on a panel entitled ”Building the Ecosystem for NFC Services”.  Visa will be providing updates through the weeklong event, which is expected to draw 80,000+ attendees from around the world.

Alsong with  executives from Turkcell, ISIS and the GSMA, Gadja discussed the current state of NFC, as NFC services are continuing to be rolled-out by mobile operators, payment providers and handset manufacturers across the world.

In other NFC-related news, Visa also annouced a global partnership with Samsung, embedding Visa’s NFC software in a range of Samsung mobile devices and tablets. 

For more information on Visa’s news and activities at Mobile World Congress, follow us @VisaNews on Twitter and check out our Mobile World Congress Media Kit, which is updated with the latest news, blog posts, videos, fact sheets and photos.

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Posted by: Lucas Mast, Visa Corporate Relations on February 25, 2013 at 3:13 pm

Category: Mobile, Partnerships
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Dec 11, 2012

The Mashable Innovation Index 2012 Winner’s Circle

Less than four weeks and more than 22 thousand votes since the Mashable Innovation Index competition kicked off, 15 winners have been crowned for their role in creating life-changing innovations.  Last month 15 handpicked industry experts were chosen to curate 15 innovative categories and nominate five “game-changers.”  Mashable readers were then asked to vote on their favorites, and the winners are being revealed today.

Nominees selected by Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer of Columbia University

Nominees selected by Martha Stewart, Entrepreneur

Nominees selected by Lance Ulanoff, Editor-in-Chief of Mashable

Nominees selected by Stacy London, Host of What Not to Wear and Founder, Style for Hire

Nominees selected by Adam Braun, Founder of Pencils of Promise

Nominees selected by Jess Lee, CEO and Co-Founder of Polyvore

Nominees selected by Chris Hughes, Editor-in-Chief of The New Republic

Nominees selected by Lorena Garcia, Chef

Nominees selected by Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, Co-Founder of Gilt Groupe

Nominees selected by Jon M. Chu, Filmmaker and Founder of DS2DIO

Nominees selected by Rafat Ali, Founder of Skift

  • Winner in Travel: High-Tech Airports

Nominees selected by Brett Terpstra, Podcaster and Life Hacker

Nominees selected by Coco Rocha, Model

Nominees selected by Sarah Robb O’Hagan, President, Equinox

 Nominees selected by Jon Dube, GM of CBS Fantasy Sports

V.me by Visa and Mashable recognize 2012 has been an outstanding year for innovation.  These 15 winners are setting new technology trends, creating new products, changing the way people connect and communicate, and reinventing the way consumers shop and merchants do business.

We’re inspired by the level of innovation each winner represents, and we offer our congratulations to all the winners.

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Posted by: Ryan Donovan, Corporate Relations on December 11, 2012 at 1:56 pm

Category: Innovation, Partnerships, Uncategorized, V.me
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Dec 11, 2012

LivingSocial and Newegg.com are the Latest Merchants Live with V.me by Visa

Whether you’re celebrating the holidays with family, friends, or both, early eCommerce data is showing just how generous people are through the holidays. Consumers are spending more time—and money—online as more people log-on to do their holiday shopping to avoid crowds, save money and simplify the gift buying experience. This year, Visa is making it even easier by adding two more leading online retailers to our growing roster of V.me by Visa merchants and further eliminating the hassles of online shopping. 

Today, visitors to LivingSocial.com and Newegg.com can sign up for V.me, checkout with a few simple clicks, and say goodbye to having to enter their bill-to, ship-to and account information each time they make a purchase online.  For both adventure lovers looking to book New Year’s Eve plans or discover a weekend excursion, or tech-enthusiasts looking for holiday shopping deals or the latest gadget, LivingSocial and Newegg.com are sure to have the perfect gift.

With just two weeks to finish holiday shopping before Christmas, it’s important to be able to buy gifts quickly. V.me allows people to do just that, enabling checkout with just a few clicks of the mouse at any of the leading 25 eCommerce merchants using V.me.  Today’s news builds on the recent launch of V.me, where more than 50 financial institutions participated in the announcement, bringing the addressable base of cardholders to as many as 55 million.

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Posted by: Jennifer Schulz, Global Head of eCommerce on December 11, 2012 at 11:56 am

Category: eCommerce, Partnerships, V.me
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Nov 26, 2012

Sparking Innovation in the Humanitarian and Development Community

Today Visa Inc. and NetHope, a consortium of 37 humanitarian organizations, announced the Visa Innovation Grants program to help modernize humanitarian aid payments. Through this program, Visa is making available $500,000 in grants to humanitarian and development non-governmental organizations to increase the speed, security and long-term impact of aid and development programs through the innovation and adoption of electronic payments.

Every year, humanitarian, development and government organizations distribute billions of dollars of cash payments to people in need through benefit stipends, emergency relief payments, and other development initiatives. Driven by the need to ensure faster delivery, greater transparency and increased security, these organizations are beginning to shift from distributing physical cash to electronic payments. For example, electronic payment distribution enables beneficiaries to use a card or mobile phone to purchase food, buy essential household needs, pay for preventative or emergency health care and obtain other critical needs more efficiently and with greater accountability.

Visa’s Innovation Grants build upon ongoing support of programs that improve and modernize humanitarian aid. For example, after the devastating flooding in Pakistan in 2010, Visa worked with the Government of Pakistan and our financial institution partners to distribute Watan Visa prepaid cards to 2.5 million families to help them purchase items to meet their basic needs. (Read more about Visa’s humanitarian response in Pakistan here). Visa also supports the Cash Learning Partnership, a consortium of humanitarian organizations focused on reducing the time and resources required to distribute relief funds to people impacted by emergencies. (Read more about Visa’s partnership with the Cash Learning Partnership here).

To encourage more innovative thinking in the humanitarian and development communities, we need to unleash better ways to deliver aid. These grants are just one way to spur the innovation needed to continue to bring humanitarian and development aid into the 21st century.

For additional information about Visa and NetHope’s grant program, please read today’s joint press release and joint post on CGAP’s blog.

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Posted by: Douglas Sabo, Visa Corporate Responsibility on November 26, 2012 at 6:58 am

Category: Financial Inclusion, Partnerships
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Oct 23, 2012

V.me by Visa and U.S. Bank Make It Easier to Shop Online This Holiday Season

As the holidays approach, Visa is committed to delivering the very latest in online convenience and security, where consumers are no longer required to share personal account, bill-to and ship-to information at checkout.

Today, U.S. Bank announced its plan to offer V.me by Visa, streamlining the online holiday shopping experience for their customers using a debit or credit card. Today’s news builds on our integration with Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, which will bring our wallet service to more than 1.2 million PNC Virtual Wallet customer accounts.

U.S. Bank customers will be able to enroll their existing Visa and other payment card accounts, allowing them to buy presents online by simply entering a username and password at checkout.

Visa’s close relationship with U.S. Bank makes buying tickets to visit family or purchasing that perfect gift online easier than ever, allowing their customers to get what they need, and get on with life.

So put down the car keys, throw a log on the fire and let us help you simplify your holiday shopping!

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Posted by: Jennifer Schulz, Global Head of eCommerce on October 23, 2012 at 8:48 am

Category: eCommerce, Innovation, Partnerships, V.me
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Oct 18, 2012

Better Than Cash Perspectives: Foundations & Multilaterals

Today we offer two new perspectives on the need to accelerate the shift to digital payments from the recent Better Than Cash launch event in New York City from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ford Foundation.

On the ground in 177 countries and territories, the UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone.

Helen Clark serves as both Administrator of the UNDP and the chair of the United Nations Development Group (UNDG).  Prior to her appointment with UNDP, Helen Clark served three successive terms (1999 – 2008) as Prime Minister of New Zealand, where she engaged widely in policy development and advocacy across the international, economic, social and cultural spheres.

Helen Clark, Administrator, UNDP and Chair, UNDG

 

The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than 75 years it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement.

Frank DeGiovanni, Director of Financial Assets, Ford Foundation

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Posted by: Douglas Sabo, Visa Corporate Responsibility on October 18, 2012 at 11:51 am

Category: Better Than Cash, Financial Inclusion, Partnerships
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Oct 15, 2012

The Convenience of Clicking

A sense of ease and simplicity exists in uttering the words “I care about you” through a few sentences written on a card or an elaborate bouquet of flowers. The same sense of ease and simplicity should also be applied to online shopping, where we know we all want to get things done as quickly as possible.

Soon, consumers shopping online for the perfect bouquet will be able to checkout hassle-free as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM is added to the  list of leading eCommerce merchants that offer V.me by Visa.

Today, V.me is available at a growing portfolio of leading online retailers, ranging from Shoebuy.com and Cooking.com to Rakuten Buy.com and Blue Nile. We’re seeing real traction behind these leading eCommerce sites that are now offering V.me, as consumers and merchants alike have learned to appreciate the security, reliability and convenience of Visa.  Consumers benefit from a digital wallet service designed to make simple and secure online payments, without the bother of constantly entering card account numbers or billing and shipping information.

Let’s face it – life gets hectic. Deadlines loom, obligations arise and others rely on us to get the job done. When it comes time to truly take care of ourselves and our loved ones, we need services that help remove the hassle and allow us to breathe easier.

The joy of online shopping is as much about convenience as it is about the shoes, the flowers, the clothes you are acquiring for yourself or your loved ones, and V.me brings more of these goods into your life, safely, quickly and simply.

Consumers are online, and Visa is where they want to shop. According to a Nielsen Global Online Survey, more than 85 percent of the world’s online population uses the Internet to make purchases – increasing the market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years.[1]

So, what are you waiting for? Start shopping!

[1] Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits

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Posted by: Jennifer Schulz, Global Head of eCommerce on October 15, 2012 at 10:51 am

Category: Partnerships, V.me
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Oct 15, 2012

Making Online Purchases Simple (and Secure) for PNC Customers

“Keep it simple.”  While this phrase has become harder to embrace in today’s fast-paced world, it’s an important reminder that innovation doesn’t have to be complicated to tackle complex problems, like commerce.

Today, life just got a little bit simpler for more than 1.2 million PNC Virtual Wallet® customer accounts who will have access to V.me by Visa, Visa’s new digital wallet service, making PNC the first bank in the U. S. to integrate with V.me. It’s fast, easy and safe.

As a next-generation payment service, V.me makes eCommerce simpler by removing friction from online transactions. PNC Virtual Wallet customers who register with V.me can make secure online purchases at a growing number of participating merchants without the hassle of constantly entering account numbers and bill-to and ship-to information.

V.me stores a customer’s personal account information behind layers of security within the industry-leading Visa network. With the click of a mouse, a touch on a mobile browser, or in the future, a wave at the physical point-of-sale, customers can easily make purchases, whether from the couch or on the go.

PNC customers can go to www.pncvirtualwallet.com/shopping to get more information on Virtual Wallet and enrolling in V.me.

©2012 The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. All rights reserved. PNC Bank, National Association. Member FDIC

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Posted by: Jennifer Schulz, Global Head of eCommerce on October 15, 2012 at 5:34 am

Category: Innovation, Mobile, Partnerships, V.me
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