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V PAY: France and Greece are first countries to accept V PAY

London, 03 May, 2005

Visa Europe's new V PAY product has won the European Payments Consultants Association (EPCA) and European Card Review (ECR) award for the "Most Innovative Payments Solution That Has Added To The Development Of SEPA (Single Euro Payment Area)."

"This is the first year that the European Payments Consulting Association (EPCA) has awarded the EPCA/ECR Excellence in Payments Innovation Awards, in association with European Card Review (ECR). We were delighted to receive 39 applications from ten countries across the five award categories," says Peter Jones, EPCA Chairman.

Peter Jones continued, "We awarded Visa Europe's new debit card scheme V PAY First Prize for the payment solution that has added the most to the development of SEPA, because we considered V PAY has the potential to greatly improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of Europe's debit card schemes."

Visa Europe's Head of External Relations Marc Temmerman, in Copenhagen to accept the award, said V PAY was a prime example of Visa's unique and exclusive European focus as an independent European business.

"V PAY addresses the growing efforts to create a unified and harmonised European payments system in a changing payments environment," Temmerman said.

"Visa Europe is an ardent supporter of these efforts to establish a truly internal market for payments in Europe and to that end, it's great to be recognised by our peers."

**Ends**

About Visa

In Europe, there are over 276 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 2004 calendar year, those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of almost €963 billion. Visa is one of the world's leading payment brands with over 1.2 billion cards generating €2.6 trillion ($USD3.1 trillion) in annual card sales volume. With merchants in more than 150 countries, Visa has unsurpassed acceptance. Visa is a Membership Association that plays a pivotal role in the global payments industry, developing innovative products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 Member financial institutions and their cardholders. For more information, visit www.visaeurope.com.
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