Visanet Brazil Adopts Welcome's XLS to Make Visa EMV Cards More Exciting and Attractive to Cardholders and Merchants Than Any Other Card Brand

1 January 1970

Welcome today announced that Visanet Brazil has chosen Welcome's XLS payment software to make Visa EMV cards in Brazil more fun, exciting and attractive to both cardholders and merchants than any other card brand.

The open loop deployment of XLS for Visanet is designed to make Visa credit and debit cards much more attractive to merchants at the moment of payment, so merchants will encourage their customers to use Visa. Merchants are able to target their promotions to Visa cardholders immediately at the moment of payment, in ways that would be very difficult and expensive using traditional methods. Cardholders receive surprise promotional offers and gifts instantly when they use their Visa card. Card issuers benefit because merchant-driven promotions at the moment of payment help avoid low card activation and usage and help reduce pressure on fees. In addition, each card issuer can develop partnerships with individual merchants for special offers exclusive to that card issuer's customers, providing a way for each bank to create differentiation.

"Welcome has worked with many individual banks, such as BBVA/Bancomer in Mexico, to help enhance the bank's brand and differentiate it against other banks," said Philippe Vinci, Welcome's CEO EMEA and Americas regions. "Today, we are increasingly working at the payment scheme level on open deployments which will help card issuers continue to enjoy accelerated growth in the region. We are very pleased and honored to have been chosen by Visanet Brazil, and we expect that this collaboration will be seen as a model for banks around the world."

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"Our goal is to maintain the high growth rate in transaction volume by encouraging the activation and use of cards already in circulation," said Luíz Eduardo Ritzmann, Visanet executive director of products and markets. "Welcome's XLS software has demonstrated its ability to help achieve these objectives. We also appreciate Welcome's local presence in Brazil and strong commitment to our market."

Visanet is the leading payment processor in Brazil, managing over 650,000 payment terminals, 60 million credit cards and 110 million debit cards.

Brazil is among the world's top 3 countries in terms of card numbers and among the top 5 in terms of transaction volume, along with the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France. The number of transactions settled by debit, charge and credit cards grew 30 percent in 2005 and overtook the number of transactions paid for by checks. In transaction value, however, checks still remain much higher, as people tend to use cards for lower-value transactions. Debit cards in particular have experienced large growth with the introduction of simplified accounts. However, debit card use is still low, with operators estimating just 50% of cards being active.

About Welcome

Welcome is the world's leading provider of payment software that utilizes the full capabilities of EMV standard (Europay-MasterCard-Visa) chip credit and debit cards to create a much more exciting and richer payment experience. Payment commoditization, resulting in rate wars and fee reforms, has recently been shown to cost banks five to ten times more than fraud. EMV cards without Welcome's software can only combat fraud, whereas the same cards with Welcome's software can also fight commoditization, for essentially the same cost as fraud alone. Welcome recently won 'ROI of the Year Award' from The Banker magazine. The company works with major banks and financial institutions around the world. Welcome is headquartered in Aix-en-Provence, France, with offices and R&D facilities in Singapore, London, Philadelphia and Sao Paulo. For more information, visit: www.welcome-rt.com

About Visanet Brazil

Visanet is a company responsible for the relationship between commercial establishments and the Visa system, which is leader of the market and responsible for 58% of the transactions made with credit cards in Brazil. The company is presented in one million establishments, in 4,850 Brazilian cities, and has 104 affiliate offices all over the country and carries through around 1.7 billion annual transactions.

Besides the management of Visa's acceptance network, the company develops and enables capture solutions, processing and monitoring for Visa Vale, large establishment networks with own cards and emission banks.

Contact for Welcome Deb Montner Montner & Associates 203-226-9290 Email Contact

SOURCE: Welcome

Source: marketwire

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