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Visa Europe CEO calls for constructive cooperation with regulators to deliver SEPA

BRUSSELS, 28 November 2006

At a SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area) conference in Brussels today, Visa Europe's chief executive, Peter Ayliffe, has called for constructive cooperation between the payments industry and regulators in Europe if the goals of SEPA are to be achieved.

"We know that we both share the [SEPA] vision", said Peter Ayliffe. "We both want Europe to benefit from dynamic, efficient, market-driven payment systems."

Responding to last week's European Central Bank (ECB) report on SEPA, he said, "We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring far more competition to many more facets of the payments business."

And he also sought to allay the ECB's fear of increased costs, stating that Visa Europe's new debit card, V PAY, would be the "most competitively priced product in the market".

Addressing Visa Europe's decision to continue as a European member bank-owned and governed organisation, Peter Ayliffe said it would "ensure that European payments are determined not by US-driven global strategies but by the European banks whose businesses rely on them." Continuing he said, "I want our organisation to be more focused on local market realities to really understand the business and profitability drivers of our respective members."

Concluding, Peter Ayliffe called for the industry to "engage in constructive dialogue with regulators" to secure "a definitive, once-and-for-all agreement that interchange is vital to the day-to-day functioning and future development of electronic payments", and for recognition "that interchange needs to be set at a level that incentivises banks to invest in payment systems. I would go as far as to say that SEPA's success is dependent on a satisfactory outcome of the interchange debate".

The conference, 'European Payments at a Tipping Point', was organised by Cards International and Visa Europe, and attended by over 100 delegates from banks, processors, industry vendors and bodies, MEPs, ECB and European Commission officials.

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Notes to the editor

About the conference:
The "European Payments at a Tipping Point: Seizing the Opportunities" organised by Cards International, in cooperation with Visa Europe.

For further information please visit: www.sepabriefing.com.

About Visa Europe:

In Europe, there are over 315 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending June 2006, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of over €1.19 trillion.

Visa Europe is a membership association - an organisation owned and operated by its 4,500 European member banks. As a dedicated European organisation it is able to respond quickly to the specific market needs of European banks and their customers - cardholders and retailers - and to meet the European Commission's objective to create a true internal market for payments. Visa Europe is a part owner of Visa International, the organisation that ensures global interoperability of products as well as management of the Visa brand.

In October 2006, Visa announced that it intends to restructure its entire worldwide organisation except Europe in order to create a new public global corporation called Visa Inc. As a part of this restructuring, Visa Europe will remain a membership association with an exclusive license in Europe.

Globally, Visa is one of the world's leading payment brands and has unsurpassed acceptance at approximately 24 million acceptance locations including one million ATMs.

About the European Central Bank's report "A SEPA for Cards" ("ECB Report"):

On 20 November 2006, the European Central bank issued its latest SEPA report, entitled "The Eurosystem's View of a 'SEPA for Cards'".

The ECB report states that "the Eurosystem expects at least one European card scheme to emerge in the coming years". It adds that this scheme would be "a key factor in enhancing diversity and competition in the market." It also considers that "shareholder-driven solutions" could lead to "excessive price increases" and concludes that "The existence of at least one more European bank-owned scheme would lessen the risk of price increases."

Contacts:

Simon Kleine, Visa Europe
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7795 5331
Email: europeanmedia@visa.com

Julia Staunig, GPlus Europe
Tel: +32 485 244 854
Email: juliastaunig@gpluseurope.com