Industry News

16/11/2009 - Visa announced Monday that it has enhanced its payment processing capabilities with the opening of its second data center in North America and the development of a new operating system.

The global payments technology company said that the new data center will, like the first facility, be capable of handling Visa's entire global payments volume, which ensures continued service in the event of a systems outage or natural disaster at one of the facilities. Visa now guarantees uninterrupted service at a 5-nine level.

Visa also developed a new payment processing transaction operating system in partnership with IBM, known as the z Transaction Processing Facility or z/TPF. This 64-bit operating system will allow Visa to deliver more information-intensive services, such as advanced fraud analysis and mobile payments.

The company added that these two developments together enhance the security that Visa can provide to merchants and cardholders, as it allows the company to better detect and prevent fraud in real time.

"Visa's commitment to continuous technology upgrades differentiates us from competitors and helps Visa play a key role in facilitating the migration to electronic payments," said Mike Dreyer, Visa's chief information officer.

Visa recently posted a profit of $514 million in the fourth quarter, supported largely by debit card payment processing.