As the consumer shopping experience evolves, so does the backbone technology that enables transactions from all over the world to be authorized in less than a second and settled to the penny every time. VisaNet, our global payments network, is an integral part of this backbone. It connects more than two billion debit, credit and prepaid accounts to nearly 15,000 financial institutions and 36 million merchant locations in more than 200 countries around the world. In its data centers, more than 82 billion transactions in 175 currencies are processed yearly, representing US$6.5 trillion in total volume.   

For more than 50 years Visa’s network has played a key role in reducing cash spend across the globe. When we started as a pilot in Fresno, California, in 1957, we could not imagine that electronic payments would turn into one of the best success stories of the 20^th century. Today, it is hard to imagine a world without them. From a cup of coffee to a refrigerator, we pay for nearly everything with payment cards. They stimulate economic growth, reduce inefficiencies and benefit consumers, businesses and governments around the globe.

To stay one step ahead of the global adoption of electronic payments, we’ve continuously expanded and enhanced VisaNet. We have built and acquired secure payment gateways, such as Cybersource and Fundamo that enable merchants, financial institutions and mobile network operators to more easily connect to Visa and offer consumers innovative new ways to pay. From mobile offers and transaction alerts delivered via SMS text message, to mobile payments on the go and at physical retailers, the pace of innovation in the payments industry is exciting. However, we have an obligation to innovate responsibly, and ensure that the core attributes of security, reliability and trust in Visa payments applies to new forms of payments. Our goal is simple: Continue to be the best way to pay, for everyone, everywhere.

While we are dedicated to helping small businesses all year-round, this week we give special thanks for all your hard work and personal dedication.

To learn more about how Visa supports small businesses, visit www.visa.com/business.

Last week, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) hosted its second international conference on business at the base of the pyramid, the Base II Forum, in Medellin, Colombia. The forum brought together over 1,000 leading experts who work to create innovative business models that connect private sector resources and the untapped potential at the base of the socioeconomic pyramid.

Visa’s Head of Product, LAC, José María Ayuso participated throughout the forum to discuss how Visa is contributing to address the base of the pyramid segment needs through services and solutions. Ayuso contributed to a panel discussion titled “The Great Corporate Leap to Markets of the Base of the Pyramid: Strategy or Coincidence?” As the leader of Visa’s LAC region, Ayuso was able to share the ways in which the company has worked within the region to address the financially underserved.

“Financial Inclusion is in our DNA,” said José María Ayuso during his presentation. “For many years Visa has been working with the Base of the Pyramid, helping micro entrepreneurs build their businesses. However, to be able to reach scale and critical mass, private and government sectors need to work hand in hand. There are many fronts that need to be addressed in a collaborative manner.  A couple of them are the high level of informality that still exists and effective regulation that provides real support to this segment.”  

According to a study commissioned by Visa and conducted by the Latin American publication América Economía, in Colombia in 2012,  SMEs card penetration is 13%, while in the region is 38%.

At Visa, we are proud to know that our products, services and global network are helping provide women and other financially underserved populations with access to the financial tools they need to lead safer, more convenient and dignified lives.

To explore more of Visa’s efforts to advance financial inclusion across the globe, visit our new Financial Inclusion Interactive Map.

From emerging markets, where traditional acceptance infrastructure simply does not exist, to farmers markets and coffee shops in developed countries, mobile point-of-sale acceptance is helping to displace cash payments and enabling merchants of all sizes – even the smallest ones – to accept card payments. It is an inventive solution from both the technology and business model points of view, which leverages the broad penetration of mobile phones to add acceptance to those segments of merchants where cash used to be the only available option.

At Visa, we see great potential to accelerate the migration to electronic payments through mPOS solutions. By helping to promote the use of these services in the Visa system, we believe they will have a greater uptake and benefit more consumers and merchants worldwide. But we want to do that in a responsible way, so to ensure that innovative payments like mPOS technology provides the same security, reliability and scale as traditional payment terminals.

This is why earlier this year we launched the Visa Ready Program, a streamlined process for the testing and approval of new payment solutions that enables our business partners to more rapidly deploy products for use with Visa payments. Last week, we’ve announced five new leading mobile acceptance providers to join the program: AnywhereCommerce, iZettle, Miura Systems, SumUp and Swiff. Two of them, AnywhereCommerce and Miura System, already have mPOS devices that are approved to accept Visa payments.

There are over two billion Visa cards around the world today and with every new mPOS device that is put out there lays an opportunity to displace paper-based payments. In the United States alone, mPOS can help to migrate more than $1.1 trillion yearly from paper to electronic payments^[1]. This is a tremendous opportunity for solutions providers, financial institutions and merchants. Visa is ready to help our clients and partners seize this great momentum, while at the same time giving consumers the peace of mind they need to transact in the mobile channel.

This week the 8th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum is taking place in Miami, FL, and Visa is participating in several activities related to financial inclusion efforts across the U.S. Lisa McFarland, Head of Consumer Prepaid Products, presented on a panel dedicated to prepaid technology aimed at bringing more access and inclusion to the underserved population. Visa also co-hosted a thought-leader roundtable with CFSI discussing how recent technology developments are enabling prepaid products to serve as an even more effective tool for financial inclusion.

Financial inclusion is broadly thought of as an emerging market issue. However, individuals and small businesses across the U.S. face some of the same barriers to accessing financial services and education, which is why Visa works with partners across the country, including governments, to help support the financially underserved.

Prepaid products can serve as an onramp to other financial services and offer the unbanked security, convenience and wide acceptance. Approximately 40 states use Visa Prepaid products to distribute child support, unemployment and other social benefits, often to citizens who are underbanked. For example, the state of Ohio transitioned to prepaid card disbursements to help reduce the 1.3 million checks they issued each year. Today, check volume is less than .5% of the 2.3 million monthly recipient payments made by the state, reducing check-cashing trips, fees and the risk of carrying large sums of cash, while allowing financially underserved consumers to gain faster access to benefit payments.

In conjunction with these programs, financial literacy has been an important focus for Visa for nearly two decades, and our programs have helped educate millions of children and adults. Our flagship Practical Money Skills for Life program includes a robust classroom curriculum and interactive resources for parents and consumers. Visa has also partnered with several businesses to launch a unique employer-based financial literacy program to help workers with money management, and each year, Visa partners with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to hold the Financial Literacy & Education Summit.

Kiva, a nonprofit organization working to alleviate poverty by connecting people through microlending, is another U.S.-based partnership for Visa. Kiva City, launched by Kiva and Visa at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in June 2011, expands the availability of microloans for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs across the U.S. Earlier this year, President Bill Clinton helped kick off Kiva City Little Rock, the latest addition to the Kiva City initiative.

To explore more of Visa’s efforts to advance financial inclusion in the U.S. and across the globe, visit our new Financial Inclusion Interactive Map.

Contactless technology continues to expand globally, and the number of NFC-enabled devices in use is expected to top 500 million next year according to ABI Research. That’s exciting news, and we expect NFC and other chip-based technologies will help drive future payment innovations.

Visa payWave, our secure contactless payment technology, helps cardholders speed through checkout without having to make physical contact with a payment terminal through their NFC-enabled phones or their contactless cards. With Visa payWave, available globally on debit and credit cards and NFC-enabled mobile devices, a consumer simply holds his or her card or phone in front a contactless terminal in order to pay.

Visa payWave transactions are around three times faster than paying with cash, and they meet all the same security standards as traditional debit and credit cards. Every transaction is protected by multiple layers of security:

• First, Visa payWave-enabled cards and mobile devices must be in a specific position and within two inches of a merchant’s terminal in order for card information to be transmitted.

• Second, each contactless transaction includes a unique code that changes with each purchase – and it’s different from the one encoded on the magnetic stripe of a Visa card. So if a criminal attempted to use intercepted data to manufacture a counterfeit card, the bank that issued the card would be able to immediately identify the fraudulent transaction.

• Finally, because Visa payWave transactions are processed through VisaNet – the same reliable network as swipe transactions – we continuously monitor for suspicious activity, allowing us to help identify and prevent fraud.

As payment technology continues to evolve, so do our security measures, and NFC-enabled mobile payments are no exception. Several layers of security at the device, chip and the Visa network levels work in concert to help prevent unauthorized use of mobile-based Visa accounts. The technology that allows an NFC-enabled device to transmit transaction information wirelessly is only active during a transaction. Account data cannot be read wirelessly from the mobile device if the consumer has not activated the payment application and placed the device within inches of a reader.

Although Visa payWave has been used around the world since 2005, there have been no reports from law enforcement or financial institutions of fraudulent activity associated with contactless technology to date. Nevertheless, Visa remains vigilant in protecting cardholders.

As emerging forms of payment like Visa payWave continue to gain traction, Visa continues to invest in multiple layers of security to prevent, detect, and resolve unauthorized use of consumers’ information.

As both a sponsor and participant at the Center for Financial Services Innovation (@CFSInnovation) “Unbanked Financial Services Forum,” Visa was among the thought leaders from the public and private sector that gathered this week in Miami to address the challenges and opportunities related to financial inclusion in the United States.

According to recent FDIC statistics, while 72% of the United States population is “banked,” more than 34 million Americans are labeled as being “unbanked” or “underbanked.”  Many of the panels at the forum focused on debunking myths and stereotypes and providing awareness and financial literacy to a population that spent $78 billion on high-cost “alternative” financial services like payday loans in 2011.

Visa’s Head of Consumer Prepaid Products, Lisa McFarland, participated on the panel “Mobile Remote Deposit Capture: The Present and the Future” alongside executives from Ingo (formerly Chexar) and Banking Up to take a focused look at how mobile remote deposit capture (mRDC) can be a potential game changer in meeting the needs of the underserved.  “Consumers are motivated by access, and with mRDC we can address a critical pain point for consumers—convenient, cost-effective and instant access to funds,” shared Visa’s McFarland.

In her keynote address, CFSI President and CEO Jennifer Tescher (@JenTescher) drew an interesting parallel between changes in the health care industry to similar shifts in the financial services industry. In recent years, she noted that doctors and others in the medical industry have moved from treating sickness to a focus on promoting wellness. According to Tescher, as Americans plan for an uncertain future by managing their money and spending well, consumer financial “health” should be a priority for financial services-oriented businesses.

Visa wrapped up our participation at the Forum by co-hosting with CFSI a thought-leader roundtable moderated by Professor Michael Collins, Faculty Director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a member of the Advisory Board for the U.S. Financial Diaries project. The discussion focused on how recent technology developments may help further elevate prepaid products into the financial mainstream while also serving as an effective tool for underbanked consumers.

At the WEF on East Asia event in Myanmar, Visa is participating in a variety of activities aimed at bringing attention to the un- and under-served populations throughout the region.

Stephen Kehoe, Head of Corporate Relations, Asia Pacific, Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (APCEMEA) led a discussion at a financial inclusion luncheon for members of the financial services industry. Leaders discussed the major issues constraining the availability and access to financial services around the region and presented what policies needed to increase the level of financial inclusion. The group explored host country Myanmar as a use-case, identifying what steps could be taken to build a more inclusive system.

Today, Peter Maher, Group Country Manager, Southeast Asia spoke at the session titled “Moving from a Cash to a Banked Economy.” Peter discussed how Myanmar can build the foundation for an inclusive and robust financial system, highlighting Visa’s financial inclusion story to share best practices for shifting from cash-based activity to electronic payments. You can read his post on the World Economic Forum blog, where he discusses Myanmar’s opportunity to expand access to mobile services as a way to reach widespread financial inclusion.

On Friday, Visa will host a financial inclusion thought leader discussion. Gordon Cooper, Visa’s Head of Emerging Market Solutions, APCEMEA, will join the dialogue, exploring what solutions can serve as catalysts in transforming Myanmar and East Asian economies.

While at the event, Erin Steinhauer, Visa’s Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for APCEMEA, talked to The Wall Street Journal’s Duncan Mavin and Shibani Mahtani about Visa’s efforts to promote financial inclusion not only in Myanmar, but throughout Asia Pacific, Africa and across the globe.

To learn more about Visa’s global effort to advance financial inclusion, visit our new Financial Inclusion Interactive Map.

Maher points out that Myanmar is in a unique position to shift its largely cash-based economy into one that’s driven by electronic payments and formal financial services. Since the physical infrastructure for its financial system is broadly underdeveloped, Myanmar has the opportunity to start with a clean slate, and adopt best practices and approaches right for its marketplace.

Maher shares some lessons learned from countries such as Bangladesh and Rwanda, where Visa has developed partnerships and seen positive movement toward reaching more widespread financial inclusion.

To learn more about how Visa is helping to advance financial inclusion around the globe, visit the new Financial Inclusion Interactive Map.

Inevitably much of the discussion centered on Myanmar itself, where the government is facing multiple infrastructure and regulatory challenges at the same time. With a huge unbanked sector and a very low penetration of mobile (around 4%) it’s going to take a long time for mobile banking to be a viable solution and so all parties are going to have to focus on alternative near term solutions.

Nonetheless, the government seems really committed to learning how to make progress. The minister of finance, who was an active table discussion participant, proved to be incredibly thoughtful in his approach which is consistent with how we have found working with the government to this point.

No doubt, huge amount of work to be done but, as in Rwanda, having a government and banking sector which is set on making progress despite the challenges is half the battle. Combine this with Visa’s early success in hooking up ATMs and signing up more than 350 merchants over the last six months and it seems clear that Myanmar is set to be another electronic payments success story.