WHEN:                 February 27 – March 1, 2012

WHERE:               2012 Mobile World Congress at Montjuic, Fira de Barcelona, Spain

Visa and Fundamo will showcase next generation payment solutions in Hall 1, Booth #B19. In addition to the main Visa booth, the company has a presence in various speaking sessions including a keynote address.

Visa Exhibition

Fira, Hall 1, Booth #B19

Feb. 27 – March 1, 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. CET

Visa’s exhibition is focused on the vision for next generation payments and its ability to improve the lives of banked and unbanked consumers. Visa will showcase mobile money solutions for developed and developing markets, its potential to transform the way people pay and get paid, and the role financial institutions, mobile network operators, device manufacturers and merchants will play in making mobile money a reality for consumers around the world. Demos include mobile money for the unbanked, Visa Mobile Prepaid, Visa payWave, Visa alerts and person-to-person payments and more. 

Visa Executive Keynote: “Financial Services in a Mobile World”

John Partridge, President, Visa Inc.

Wednesday, February 29 at 11:00 a.m. CET

Fira, Hall 5, Auditorium 1

Visa’s President addresses the complex issues surrounding mobile money and is joined on stage with CEOs from financial institutions and mobile operators for an in depth panel discussion.

Panel: “Mobile Money: Delivering Innovative Mobile Payment Services”

Bill Gajda, Global Head of Mobile Product, Visa Inc.

Thursday, March 1 at 11:30 a.m. CET

Fira, Hall 5, Auditorium 3

Visa’s Global Head of Mobile Product explores the latest innovations, challenges and opportunities in mobile payments, including the critical success factors for delivering innovative services in the mobile money space.

The news of the Obama and Romney campaigns equipping staff, volunteers and community organizers with Square payment technology makes simple sense.  Campaign organizers can now “strike while the iron is hot” by soliciting contributions on site at rallies and other campaign events when donors are likely to be fired up to contribute to their favorite candidate

Deployments like this can save hundreds of man-hours and increase fundraising receipts.  Donors will now have the option of mobile face-to-face card payments through Visa’s network with the convenience of automated email receipts for easy tax filing.  As one of the world’s largest payment networks and an early investor in Square, Visa is encouraged to see this growth of payment card acceptance, no matter how the campaigns end.

“Anything that reduces the barrier to donate is going to help us with our supporters,” Zac Moffatt, the Romney campaign’s digital director told The New York Times.

This push for self-protection is at the heart of Data Privacy Day, an annual event to promote privacy awareness and education.  It is organized by the National Cyber Security Alliance—of which Visa is a major supporter and Board member.  This year’s Data Privacy Day is January 28.

Data Privacy Day is not just about parties and funny hats.  And it’s not about companies congratulating themselves on policies that have written.  Data Privacy Day is about people – and a reminder of the important role each of us plays every day to keep our valuable information safe from fraud or misuse. 

Even if your New Year’s resolutions have already gone by the wayside, here are a few simple steps you can resolve to do in 2012:

1.    Work out your old passwords

When a password – for email, web site, bank account or company network – goes unchanged, it is more easily stolen.  They ought to be changed regularly, and strengthened by jumbling letters and numbers.  And if you use the same password at multiple sites, a breach at one site can compromise your account and information all across the web.

2.    Play defense

When you are at an ATM or a check-out counter, use your hand or body to block others from seeing your personal identification code or other private information.  You’d be amazed at the ingenuity of thieves, from micro-cameras and mirrors to a simple inside job with store employees.

3.    Know what’s next

Filling out your name, address, email, and date of birth might win you the car of your dreams in the drawing at the mall.  But once the data is collected, what else is it used for?  Know how your personal information is going to be shared and used before you pass it along.

4.    Keep your friends close, your enemies… far

Be only as close to family, friends, colleagues, and long-lost classmates as you want to be—and think you are.  Facebook, Google+, Flickr, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Foursquare all let you to post and interact in great ways.  But the press is filled with stories of people who over-shared with regret.  Regularly confirm all information being shared is what you intend it to be.

5.    Make copies

Identity theft is not just about being hacked online.  There are still “old school” pickpockets, as well as lost wallets.  Protect yourself by having photocopies of your cards and driver’s license for fast notification of loss and quick replacements.  And keep the copies in a safe, secure place.

6.    Clean out your digital closet

You already know to shred documents with personal information before recycling them.  So do the same for digital files.  If your computer is subjected to a remote takeover or hack, saving more only creates a bigger target.

7.    Find yourself

Go ahead, search your name.  What you find will either give you confidence that your online privacy has been well-managed or it will point you at places that need more attention.  Search results are a good indication of the good work you’ve done – and where you may need to do more.

Data Privacy Day isn’t a major national public holiday… yet.  But proper cyber security is a major national priority.  A smarter, more informed approach to data security and privacy can cut down on the financial burden of fraud – that helps businesses, individuals’ pocketbooks and even the government, which has to chase fraud cases.  But more importantly, being aware and diligent about protecting your information can give you that feeling we all want during a holiday: peace of mind.

The answers to these questions, and more, from the Visa Global Travel Intentions Survey 2011 report are available for download from today. In its sixth year, the report provides an in-depth look and analysis into international travel trends and travel behavior globally.
Interesting findings include:
• Indian travelers are leading the pack in terms of medical tourism, with 23 percent spending on healthcare and medical services while on holiday, compared to the global average of 11 percent.
• Apart from travelers from Hong Kong who still largely rely on travel magazines, the rest of the world’s travelers seek information online.
• Moroccans enjoy the longest breaks with 61 percent stating they plan to stay more than 20 nights while away on holiday.

To view the full findings and insights, download the Visa Global Travel Intentions Survey 2011 here.

Innovating keeps us at the forefront of the payments industry. Across the organization, at every level, employees are encouraged to invent better ways expand the reach and value of digital currency through new channels, devices and products. 

We talked to some of our inventors on camera to learn more about how innovation and intellectual property connects to our past and, more importantly, to our future.

Along with this support, we’ve also received a lot of questions from people in our industry on how best to implement these technologies. We’ve pulled together a set of recommended practices customized for the U.S. to answer them, drawing on our many years of experience deploying chip technology in other parts of the world.

One thing that’s clear from the questions is that there’s a lot of confusion around the myth that EMV means “chip-and-PIN.” It doesn’t in many countries, including the U.S. That’s because, in the U.S., we can rely on online processing where transactions are transmitted in real-time to the issuer for approval. With that in place, there’s no need for the offline authentication that was the genesis of chip-and-PIN.

Here’s what Mercator Advisory Group analyst George Peabody recently wrote about this: “In the United States, in our 100 percent online environment, there is no business case or requirement for offline PIN transaction support.” We agree. In fact, as a late adopter of EMV, there’s a great upside for the industry in the U.S., because we can avoid much of the cost and complexity involved in deploying older-generation chip cards, while still reaping all of the benefits of reduced counterfeit fraud.

The key is to implement a streamlined, online-only version of EMV chip. At the time EMV was created, the cost and complexity of connecting a merchant POS device to some telecommunication networks was prohibitive. The way around that was to introduce “floor limits” and create a magnetic stripe alternative – EMV chip-and-PIN – as a counter to potential fraud.

Of course, we all know how much telecommunications has changed since EMV was conceived in 1994. Online authorization is now practical in much of the world (less than 7% of transactions in Europe today rely on offline authorization). And in the U.S., our telecommunications system means we can rely on online processing that is fast, and where transactions are routinely analyzed with our real-time fraud scoring system prior to issuer review. By adding the dynamic cryptogram of the EMV chip to online authorization, we’ll increase transaction safety even more, yet without the more complex and expensive cards, terminals and processing capabilities that are needed to support offline authorization.

Visa will continue to support a range of cardholder verification methods (CVMs) with EMV chip, including signature, online PIN and no-signature for low-value, low-risk transactions. In the longer term, we expect the industry will reduce or even eliminate its use of static verification methods, such as signature and PIN in favor of new and dynamic forms of cardholder verification.

For those who choose to deploy online PIN, it’s important to remember that newly deployed PIN entry devices must comply with industry standards to ensure the security of sensitive PIN data. Merchants and acquirers should follow security practices to prevent payment device tampering and data compromises that may put valuable cardholder data, especially PINs, at risk.

As the U.S. payments industry takes initial steps to adopt chip technologies, we hope our recommended practices will help financial institutions and merchants make informed decisions as they plan their implementations and evaluate competitive vendor offerings.

More information on Visa’s U.S. EMV chip roadmap is available at www.visa.com/cisp.

How will people use their Visa Gift cards?

According to the recent Visa Gift Giving Survey, people will spend their Visa Gift card in the following ways:

61%  Indulging in something they might not normally be able to buy/afford

58%  Buying “life essentials” such as groceries or paying bills

41%  Using it to help purchase gifts for other people

Follow these simple tips when using a Visa Gift card:

• Activate and Read: The gift card is activated upon purchase, so the recipient can begin using the card immediately. Recipients should be sure to read the issuer’s terms and conditions of their Visa Gift card, which are included in the original packaging, or can be found on the issuer’s web site.
• Use It: The card was given as a gift, and it’s important to use it early to enjoy the full benefits of the gift.  If the purchase price exceeds the value of the gift card, another form of payment can be provided in addition to the gift card.  Tip: Recipients can send a thank you note to the gift giver letting them know what was purchased with the card.
• When Paying – Know the Balance and Choose “Credit:” Know the value remaining on the Visa Gift card before shopping, either by calling the card issuer or checking the balance online. When paying in person, card holders should select the “credit” option as the payment method when checking out.

For more tips and information on how to use a Visa Gift card – visit www.visa.com/giftcardguide.

Those who use Intuit’s GoPayment mobile acceptance app and reader can now link their GoPayment account to a Visa prepaid card, conveniently separating the funds collected through GoPayment from other finances. The card can then be used to make payments online or in-store, as well as to withdraw cash at ATMs anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted.

TechCrunch said the GoPayment Prepaid Visa Card “makes GoPayment especially friendly for fledgling entrepreneurs or businesses who want to accept payments but don’t have a business bank account.”

GoPayment users can choose where they’d like to accept payments, whether to an existing business or personal account, or to the GoPayment Prepaid Visa Card.

Products like this show how the flexibility of the Visa prepaid platform allows our prepaid partners to create tailored products to meet the evolving payments landscape.

That’s why we were excited to work with Nightline on the story to look more closely at the state- of-the-art technology that enables our network to be secure, reliable and scalable – and importantly, manage the high peak time transaction volumes driven by the season. Every day, VisaNet connects up to 1.9 billion Visa accounts, millions of acceptance locations, 1.8 million ATMs and 15,500 financial institutions around the world, so making sure every one of those connections is safe and secure is incredibly important to us.  We even gave Nightline access to our control room in our data center, where they could see the 50 years of experience and investments we apply to ensure Visa account holders can swipe their cards with absolute peace of mind. 

Our data center employees took the Nightline crew on a full tour of the facility, talking through the elements that keep our network going, including our server redundancy, heating, cooling and power capabilities, and our external building security. These elements work together without fail every day, even during the holiday rush to buy last minute gifts!

We hope you were able to catch the piece, but if not, you can watch it on the ABC News site here.