Visa shares innovative security technologies at National Fraud Forum

More than 80 bank executives and law enforcement personnel attended the Forum at the National Bank of Egypt Club. Key Visa security and fraud managers presented world-leading technologies and initiatives to continue protecting payment card users.

"Egypt is leading regional efforts to advance payment card security. The fraud rate for payment cards issued in Egypt remains lower than both the global and regional average. The Forum is leading a united effort to maintain Egypt's low fraud rate and Visa is proud to support these local initiatives promoting safe payments,"

said Tarek Elhousseiny, Visa's General Manager for North and West Africa.

Visa has worked closely with banks and merchants to develop and implement technology enabled services that validate payment cards online and authenticate the cardholder including Verified by Visa (VbV) and Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2).

"Fraud has changed from an individual crime of opportunity to an organised crime of process. Electronic payments are considerably less prone to counterfeit than cash payments, but they require a new kind of collaborative effort to prevent fraud. Visa offers a number of tools to provide real-time authentication of a website visitor's identity and is developing these measures to ensure that its cardholders shopping online are more protected than ever before,"

said Valery Assaf, Visa's Regional Fraud Control Manager.

"E-commerce is an increasingly important element of the global economy. According to the Nielson report on online shopping trends, more than 60% of online consumers worldwide use payment cards," said Tarek Elhousseiny. "In this environment it is critically important that online purchases are secure. Visa is dedicated to accomplishing this goal by working with customers, banks and merchants to institute common, secure authentication protocols that allow consumers to shop the global marketplace with ease of mind."

The National Fraud Forum of Egypt provides a platform for industry experts to exchange the latest knowledge and information regarding payment card security and coordinate unified efforts to continue protecting Egypt's consumers. In January 2007, the Forum and its member institutions became the first in Africa to coordinate a nationwide payment card security organisation when it signed a Constitution empowering representatives to share fraud-related information openly.