Visa International officials meet with Member Banks in Jordan and Lebanon

Representing Visa International, Melanie Cameron, New Technologies Manager and Terry Trench, a Technical Consultant specializing in 3-D Secure visited several of the regions Member Banks to present the latest innovations in Visa's e-commerce secure technology.

Commenting on the Levant, Cameron said: "As new technologies continue to evolve and the Internet becomes an integral part of our daily life, Visa has committed itself to developing the safest and most reliable e-commerce payment solutions for the region.

"Earlier this year the UAE led the way with the first launch of "Verified by Visa" within the Middle East, and we are confident that the Levant will soon follow with the implementation of this service next year. More importantly, following Mastercard's adoption of 3-D Secure - the authentication technology within Verified by Visa - Visa's technology has now become a global standard for shopping on the Internet and is expected to reduce fraud arising from online transactions by at least 50 per cent."

Trench explained the process: " The "Verified by Visa" programme, , is an authentication system for e-commerce transactions that validates a cardholder's identity, while at the same time validating the merchant. It has been designed to reduce transaction disputes as well as the fraudulent use of cards on the Internet, thereby increasing consumer and merchant confidence in electronic commerce.

"Consumers are able to take measures to protect their Visa accounts from unauthorized use by selecting a personalised password that becomes their online 'signature' for web purchases. Only the issuing bank and the cardholder know the password, which means that the cardholder's account details are secure from any other external parties. This safeguards their transactions and provides a level of security and peace of mind that were not previously possible."

Visa is already the preferred payment method globally with online shoppers today. More than 6,000 banks worldwide are already using the "Verified by Visa" technology and 80 of the top 100 e-merchants have signed up for the "Verified by Visa" programme.

Regionally, e-commerce transactions have seen a rapid growth with Visa recording an increase of 64 per cent from 68,000 transactions in March 2001 to 111,400 transactions in March 2002 across the Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa region. Transaction value on e-commerce transactions in CEMEA similarly showed some growth from US$ 4.45 million in March 2001 to US$ 7.4 million in March 2002 (66%) in March 2002. This growth clearly demonstrates the potential for e-commerce, but impressive as this growth is, it is still being held back. At the moment 56% of transactions are still paid for on a 'Cash on Delivery' basis, while globally an average of 64% of e-payment is carried out by payment cards online."

Said Shuqom, General Manager for Visa International in Levant, said: "According to recent Visa results announced earlier this month, both Jordan and Lebanon emerged as strong growth markets and we are very excited to see the imminent development of this new technology in the region."

ENDS