Georgia among Top Implementers of Innovative Technologies
Visa International representatives Mandy Lamb, Andrei Aleikin and Hector Rodriguez visited Georgia to share information on the latest global trends in the digital payments industry, visa strategy on prevention fraud scheme and the company's vision for the future development of the market opportunities in the country.
At the press conference it was stated that Georgia was the first in the region to implement HCE (Host Card Emulation) technology in online payments. The country was the first to issue Visa PayWave and contactless micro tag stickers in the South Caucasus, with 28% of all face-to-face Visa transactions in Georgia made on Visa PayWave cards in September 2015.
Additionally, Visa International plans to invest more in the development of the online payment industry in the future, launching innovative products; providing secure and reliable payments for its clients and deepening established partnerships with Georgian leading banks, government and law enforcement agencies.
“Visa’s business is focused on growing electronic payment and displacing cash in the system,” said Mandy Lamb, Group Country Manager in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) & South East Europe (SEE), at the press conference. “With Georgia one of the most progressive and innovative countries in the region, and a flagship market for Visa PayWave and contactless payments, we believe that we are very much on track to achieving this goal.”
According to Andrei Aleikin, Senior Director, Emerging Products & Innovations CIS&SEE, Visa offers its users a payment ecosystem and a safe and reliable payment system for a variety of commercial practices for vendors and financial institutions.
“Visa introduced a new network system called ‘Visa Developer’ – an open platform for developers which enables customers to have direct access to new Visa services. In this direction, we plan to further deepen new e-commerce practices for our customers who increasingly rely on mobile payment practices,” Aleikin said.
“In the footsteps of the innovative trends in the world, Visa’s aim is to provide its customers with reliability and safety any time they use a visa card. Our team is working on prevention of fraudulent schemes and establishing a data security standard in online payments - we are collaborating with Georgian partners in this direction,” said Hector Rodriguez, Regional Risk Officer in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA).
Visa International is a global payments technology company connecting consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. The company operates one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 56,000 transaction messages in a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution clients to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products.
Meri Taliashvili