Press Releases

Hundreds of federal government officials gathered today at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. for the seventh annual Visa Government Forum, an event designed to share best practices on successfully managing government procurement and business travel payment card programs. 

Congressman Tom Davis (Va.), chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, delivered a keynote address that provided an overview of recent acquisition legislative and oversight activities and an update on the committee's acquisition legislative and oversight agenda for the current Congress.  Davis stressed the importance of payment card programs in helping federal agencies to streamline processes, gain greater operating efficiency, reduce costs and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Neal Fox, assistant commissioner for commercial acquisition at the General Services Administration's (GSA) Federal Supply Service, shared insights from the successful implementation and management of the GSA SmartPay program.  Fox noted the increased efficiencies and cost savings generated by the program's rich payment card transaction data, as opposed to the labor-intensive paper procurement system.  The GSA will apply his team's insights to prepare for the "next generation" SmartPay program, slated to begin in late 2008.  New developments to SmartPay will center on enhanced payment card transaction data to generate further cost savings through improved strategic sourcing.

"Over the past seven years, the Visa Government Forum has become the source for government agency acquisition and financial management professionals to obtain information and learn of best-in-industry practices relating to commercial payments," said Bruce Sullivan, vice president, government services, Visa USA.  "Today's session illustrated the dollars and cents value presented by a broad range of payment options and how efficient management of government card programs can maximize the cost savings for the benefit of the U.S. taxpayer."

Visa has helped the federal government achieve greater efficiency in its procure-to-pay and travel management programs through the development of innovative commercial payment solutions.  By implementing Visa's suite of commercial payment products, the federal government's purchasing card program streamlined payment processes to save taxpayers approximately $1.4 billion annually.  These savings have been generated by electronic payment solutions using 1.7 million Visa commercial payment cards and non-card-based Visa programs, replacing more expensive and time-consuming paper-based payments.

Following the morning's keynote addresses, forum attendees participated in a number of panel discussions and workshops, addressing issues, trends and best practices to improve the government's electronic business and payments environment through internal controls and innovative approaches.   The afternoon's sessions were led by several federal and international agency administrators, including:

• Relmond Van Daniker, executive director, Association of Government Accountants
• Danny Werfel, director, federal financial management, Office of Management and Budget
• Stephen Heard, director, commercial solutions, OGC Buying Solutions, United Kingdom. 

The Visa Government Forum continues on Friday, May 6 with technical demonstrations of payment products and solutions.  The Technology Day will include seminars that investigate new electronic payment and information management solutions, including Visa Commerce, Visa Fleet, 1099 and 1057 web-based reporting and benchmarking tools.

About Visa Commercial Solutions

Visa offers small businesses, middle market companies, large corporations and government agencies trusted, reliable solutions that meet their many commercial payment needs - for virtually any purchase type, any situation or any business process.  These capabilities help businesses and government agencies streamline operations, reduce overall costs and improve cash flow for better management of their payment processes. Visa's commercial solutions offer a great way for businesses and the public sector to pay and be paid. For more information about Visa's government business, please visit www.visa.com/government.

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 in the United States, 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.  Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize financial resources - anytime, anywhere, anyway.