Visa and Barclaycard send to the first card without contact for trips and payments

15 of December of 2006 Madrid

Europe visa, in collaboration with Barclaycard and the system of public transport of London (for Transport London), it will provide the technology with which will work the first British card without contact for trips and payments.

In less than a second, the new Barclaycard Visa will allow the safe product purchase of daily consumption even if its price is inferior to 15€, like a coffee, the newspaper or a appetizer. Simultaneously it will work, also, like a card to accede to the network of transport of the meter and buses of the city of London.

The payment is realized simply approaching the card a reader, instead of to physically pass it through the groove of the terminal of point of sale since it is made traditionally. The card will contribute to the holders comfort, rapidity and will help to reduce the number of cards that take in the portfolio.

The holders will be able to use these cards without contact for payments and trips as of the summer of 2007.

Marc O´Brien, senior Visa vice-president UK, indicated: “Visa is glad of being able to work with Barclaycard to remove to the market the first commercial solution without contact for trips and payments in the United Kingdom, allowing to the holders to less than carry out safe purchases in a second. This it is the result of the development of several technologies of payment in which we have worked along with Barclaycard during the past few years�?.

Sandra Alzetta, director of marketing Europe Visa, added: “Multifunction without contact is the first European card that takes advantage of the investment done by Visa in technology chip and that will help us to foment the card use for payments of low amount�?.

The Visa participation contributes to advantages differentials to the system of public transport of London, mainly the fact that the mark Visa is accepted in commerce worldwide, which means that the holders will have a matchless list of small commerce where to be able to use their card without contact for trips and payments.

Like sponsoring of the Olympic games, Visa wishes to play a role important to obtain that the games of 2012 in London are the best ones of all the history. The technological advances like the card without contact for trips and payments are exactly the type of initiative that is needed to stimulate the most frequent sales of low amount in commerce, apart from which they will help the economy of the capital to take advantage of the increase the pedestrian traffic that will attract the Olympic games.

Notes:

The card without contact for trips and payments will be the first example of technology of payments without contact for transport in the United Kingdom. The payments without contact are those in which the instructions of payment between a card chip without contact and a terminal of acceptance interchange of safe form using wireless technologies of communication. A solution without commercially viable contact, cradle in the technology of chip EMV was developed by Visa in 2004. The technology without contact has been implanted in select markets in the world, including the EE.UU and in some countries of the area of Asia-Pacific.
Barclaycard is an international credit card multi-marks besides a company dedicated to loans to consumption and one of the companies card leaders in Europe. In the United Kingdom, Barclaycard manages the credit cards that take the Barclaycard mark, besides other portfolios of credit cards that do not belong to the Barclaycard mark like Monument, SkyCard and Personal Solution Finance. Barclaycard manages portfolios of guaranteed loans and without guaranteeing, through the loans of the Barclays mark, being most Barclayloan, and also through the companies FIRSTPLUS and Clydesdale Financial Services. Outside the United Kingdom, Barclaycard emits credit cards in the EE.UU. - to traverse of Barclaycard U.S., in Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia and Africa.

On Visa

In Europe it has more than 315 million cards Visa of credit, debit and of companies. In the 12 months until June end of 2006 those cards they were used to realize distant purchases and of cash by a total volume of more than 1.19 trillions of Euros.

Visa is an association formed by members, an organization directed by its 4,500 European financial organizations member, which allows him to quickly take care of the specific needs of the European financial organizations and their clients - titular and commerce, besides fulfilling with the aim of the European Commission to create a true inner market of payments. Europe visa is Visa co-owner the International, the organization who guarantees the global interoperability of her products as well as the management of the mark Visa.

In October of 2006, Visa announced the reconstruction of its organization at world-wide level excluding Europe to create a new company quoted in stock market that will be called Inc. Visa. Like part of this reconstruction, Europe Visa will maintain its structure of association and will operate exclusively with a license in Europe.

Visa is one of the payment marks leaders in the world and counts on a level of matchless acceptance that includes approximately 24 million acceptance points which they include more of a million automatic tellers.

For more information it visits www.visaeurope.com/es