Visa makes Internet shopping a safer experience for all

Visa Authenticated Payment is a comprehensive program to protect Internet-based payments on a global scale. The Program has been designed to decrease fraud and disputes for e-commerce transactions and increase buyer confidence, and in doing so, ensure that consumers have ultimate control over the use of their payment cards.

With Visa Authenticated Payment, cardholders will be better protected while shopping online because issuing banks will be able to authenticate their cardholders (for example, by checking a password or other means of identification entered by the cardholder) during the online payment transaction and notify the e-merchant in real time that the buyer is the actual cardholder.

By implementing Visa Authenticated Payment, e-merchants will be better able to sell and ship goods to any of Visa's one billion cardholders. They will know that the goods they sell will be paid for since the cardholder's issuing bank has validated him/her and approved the transaction. With these new protections, fraud and customer disputes will be significantly reduced and consumers will become increasingly confident about shopping online, leading to increased sales volume for e-merchants.

" The program has been designed to encourage swift market adoption worldwide, through the use of flexible technology options coupled with commercial incentives for authenticated payment. This program will ensure that Visa remains the preferred way to pay on the internet as well as in the physical world," says Stuart Brocklehurst, Senior Vice President, Digital Commerce for Visa International's Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region.

The new Visa Authenticated Payment Program will improve security for online payment through flexible technology options, education and a comprehensive business framework.

As part of the program, 3-D Secure has been developed and approved as a new global authentication technology, in addition to 3-D SET. 3-D Secure is a new, easy to implement, globally interoperable payment authentication solution that greatly improves overall system integrity. Visa Authenticated Payment allows for interoperability between the two technologies, ensuring that authentication benefits can be extended to all participating cardholders and e-merchants worldwide.

Visa International's Board of Directors has approved commercial incentives to promote the worldwide rollout of Visa Authenticated Payment. The newly adopted commercial incentives provide protections and guarantees to participating e-merchants that were previously only available in the physical world (in a face-to-face transaction).

Visa Authenticated Payment is one of three key elements driving Visa's Secure e-Commerce Initiative. Other core programs within the initiative include Account Information Security and Best Business Practices.

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