By: John Miller
Visa is one of the top digital payment companies in the world. Started in 1958 as the Bank of America’s first consumer credit card program, it’s now operates in more than 200 countries with over 100 million merchants worldwide. Recently, Visa issued cards crossed over 3.8 billion and more than 232 billion transactions.
Today we look up some of the latest updates from this financial behemoth and how it can affect you and your business.
Visa Aims for a Greener Planet
Visa has allied with more than 500 transit agencies worldwide, bringing fast contactless payments to different mode of transit. Visa is also promoting the transition to zero-emission vehicles, including electric vehicles (EV).
Furthermore, the company is working closely with both the public and private sectors to broaden EV charging digital payment options, with Visa being the first representative from the financial payments community to join the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) — an association working to promote global standards.
Travel and Tourism. Visa has partnered with Booking.com, Skyscanner, Trip.com Group, and Tripadvisor to create the Travalyst, a sustainable travel coalition to help make travel and tourism more sustainable. Travalyst recently welcomed Google and Expedia as new coalition partners and together announced their standardized ways to calculating carbon emissions for air travel.
Sustainability. Visa recently launched the Visa Eco Benefits Bundle, a package designed to encourage sustainable behaviors for its cardholders. The bundle includes tools and education to help consumers better understand the climate impact0 of their spending habits as well as rewards for those who practice sustainable spending behaviors. Visa has also partnered with leading banks around the globe to promote sustainability by rewarding consumers who practice “green spending”.
Post-Pandemic Digital Security
Since the onset of the pandemic, the e-commerce volume has grown by more than 50%, while Visa’s peer-to-peer payments have more than doubled. Unfortunately, criminal entities saw the pandemic as an opportunity to exploit human and technical vulnerabilities.
Visa has anticipated these exploitations and has since developed cutting-edge cyber security. Visa has over 1000 full-time cybersecurity specialists who have helped clients save $31 million in prevented fraud in Fiscal Year 2021. The Visa Account Intelligence tool uses AI and machine learning to catch fraud before it starts.
Visa has introduced Authentication 2.0 which reduces the risk of identity theft by replacing cardholder information with a unique identifier for a specific transaction which led to a 28 percent reduction in fraud rates.
Visa has also released Cloud Token Framework (CTF), designed to improve security and increase approval rates for card-not-present transactions.
Visa Promotes Digitalization To Help Small Businesses (SMBs)
SMBs currently account for 99.9% of American businesses and employ nearly 47% of the American workforce. During the pandemic, SMBs that were able to go digital were more resilient than their traditional counterparts. To this end, Visa has committed to digitally enable 50
SMBs by the end of 2023. In addition, Visa has made other commitments to support SMBs by promoting their digitalization:
- Visa Foundation pledged $200 million in relief to SMBs that were hit hard by the pandemic through its Equitable Access initiative.
- Lowered key in-store and online consumer credit interchange rates.
- Invested more than $9 billion in network security and fraud management.
- Launched Visa’s Small Business Hub which features digital enablement tools and solutions to help small business owners reach more customers.
- Created Back to Business directory so that locals can easily find and support businesses in their vicinity.
- Grants programs for small businesses like She’s Next, Empowered by Visa, and the Visa Everywhere Initiative.