European merchants gear up to accept V PAY cards
Critical mass of acceptance established to enable card issuance by banks
London, April, 20 2006
Visa Europe has announced a number of key acquirer deals across Europe to ensure that the 2.2 million EMV Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals are ready to accept V PAY and display the acceptance mark.Carte Bleue and its board members endorsed V PAY acceptance a year ago and is currently finalising implementation plans with French acquirers and their top 200,000 French merchants to display the V PAY acceptance mark by end of 2006.
In the UK, RBS Group (Streamline in the UK) has agreed in principle to enable their merchants for V PAY acceptance and V PAY signage was also part of the UK chip and PIN merchant campaign.
In Italy, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland and Finland, key acquirers* have already committed to V PAY and are preparing their merchants for V PAY cardholders. These activities typically include merchant education and ensuring that V PAY decals are displayed to welcome V PAY cardholders.
Elsewhere in Europe, Visa is also in advanced discussion with key acquirers** in Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia to enable merchants for V PAY cardholders.
Jon Prideaux, Executive Vice President, Visa Europe, commented, "The trickiest part of establishing a new payment scheme is breaking the chicken and egg scenario: to give issuers the confidence that their cards will be accepted and merchants the confidence that cards will be issued. With this announcement we can now provide that confidence: collectively these acquirers account for 85% of all transactions in Europe, a sure context within which issuers can now finalise their decisions.
"This announcement and commitment by European acquirers signifies the momentum and excitement gathering around V PAY and demonstrates that EMV capable merchants can simply display the V PAY mark in order to accept V PAY transactions.
"This is an important step forward to establishing a European-wide V PAY acceptance network, which will support and achieve Europe's internal market for payments. By 2010, we expect to see tens of millions of V PAY cards in Europe delivering a truly 21st century debit solution. A key attraction of V PAY to acquirers is that it offers them access to new business segments including low value payments for everyday items such as coffees, train tickets, and fast food outlets providing a competitive economic rationale to displace cash," concluded Jon Prideaux.
V PAY is always chip, always PIN, which means an optimal level of security and issuer control with minimal fraud losses. It builds on the investment of the European banks in EMV infrastructure across Europe, and provides local and European governance.
* Acquirers signed up to V PAY
- Italy: Setefi, Deutsche Bank and CartaSi
- Turkey: AK Bank, IS Bank, Garanti Bank and Yapi Kredi
- Greece: Alpha Bank, Piraeus Bank and Emporiki
- Portugal: UNICRE
- Switzerland: Telekurs Multipay
- Hungary: OTP Bank, K&H Bank and Budapest Bank
- Poland: Polcard and CardPoint
- Finland: Luottokunta
** Acquirers in advanced negotiations
- Germany: B&S and ConCardis
- UK: Barclaycard
- Spain: ServiRed, Sistema 4B and Euro6000
- Italy: Banca Antonveneta
- Austria: Visa Austria
- Czech Republic: Ceska sporitelna and Komercni banka
- Slovakia: Tatrabanka
- Slovenia: Banka Koper
- Portugal: BPN - NetPay
V PAY benefits at a glance:
- Is an EMV chip and PIN only debit product
- Is compatible with local market account numbering structures supporting 16-19 digit account numbers beginning with 4, 5 or 6. That means issuers, acquirers and merchants in those markets can use their existing systems and infrastructure with minimal changes
- Can be co-badged with domestic debit brands
- Can support dedicated governance structures
- Option to carry the PLUS mark enabling global access to ATMs
- Is compatible with all EMV compliant terminals
