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Verified by Visa Continues Steady Adoption; Merchants, Consumers Use Technology to Fight Fraud

Online shopping is now as mainstream as Mother's Day -- and so are concerns about the potential for e-commerce fraud. That's why tens of thousands of merchants during the year's second-busiest shopping season are looking for the right technology to protect themselves and ensure a safe, satisfying online buying experience for their customers.

One of the most widely used such technologies is Verified by Visa, a cardholder authentication service that helps protect Visa card numbers against unauthorized use. In the past year alone, Verified by Visa's share of e-commerce transactions has grown over 40%, and transaction volume during the first quarter of 2005 has increased more than 230% over last year.

The adoption of Verified by Visa has played a major role in driving payment card fraud to its lowest rate ever - less than five cents per $100. This success continues to attract greater adoption by cardholders and merchants of the Verified by Visa program.  Today, more than 360 million Visa cards are eligible for Verified by Visa, and 56,000 merchants worldwide have adopted the cardholder authentication service.

"Even brick-and-mortar merchants know the importance of online shopping - and how maintaining customer confidence is the key to sales," said Mike Yakel, Vice President of Emerging Product Management, Visa USA. "Verified by Visa provides an added layer of security - protecting both the Internet merchant and consumers."

As of April 2005:

• Verified by Visa transaction volume has increased more than 300 percent compared to same quarter a year ago.
• Verified by Visa transaction volume during the Mother's Day shopping period grew over 300% percent from 2003 to 2004.
• During the Mother's Day shopping period in 2004, the average Verified by Visa transaction was 87 percent higher than a non-Verified by Visa transaction.
• For participating Verified by Visa merchants, more than $3 of every $10 of eCommerce processed by Visa comes from Verified by Visa authenticated transactions.
• The average Verified by Visa transaction is now $173, an increase of 4% from last year.
• The value of the average Verified by Visa transaction is more than triple the $56 average size of a Visa transaction. 

Mother's Day Shopping Season

The weeks prior to Mother's Day represent the second-busiest shopping season of the year, according to data from Visa USA SpendTrak Report.  Growth in Visa's ecommerce volume during the Mother's Day shopping period totaled more than 45 percent from 2003 to 2004, and this trend is expected to continue in 2005.

"There's definitely momentum behind Verified by Visa that's helping to drive e-commerce revenues and cardholder satisfaction," said Yakel. "Merchants who offer Verified by Visa technology are seen by consumers as market leaders and preferred sites, giving them a distinct advantage in a competitive landscape."

About Visa

Visa USA is the nation's leading payment brand and largest payment system, enabling banks to provide their consumers and business customers with a wide variety of payment alternatives tailored to meet their evolving needs. Jointly owned by nearly 14,000 financial institutions, Visa USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance, and security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payments systems - members, cardholders and merchants. Through its members, more than 458 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to cardholders, which are accepted at over 5.7 million locations within the United States. Each year, U.S.-based financial institutions rely on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3 trillion in transactions with virtually 100 percent reliability.

Worldwide, cardholders in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion Visa-branded cards, accepted at nearly 22 million locations, accounting for $3 trillion in annual transaction volume.

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