Visa Hosts Industry Leaders at First Security Summit

6 October 2005

At a first-of-its-kind summit, entitled
"Cardholder Security in the New Electronic Payments Age," Visa USA President
and CEO John Philip Coghlan addressed leaders from the banking, retail,
government, law enforcement and high-tech communities and underscored what is
really at stake in the battle over card security.
"Trust is crucial to the success of economic systems," explained Coghlan.
"I believe that the security of our clients' data is one of the most important
pillars of that trust."
Looking out on the current security environment, Coghlan declared that the
time for cross-industry collaboration on issues of cardholder security has
arrived.
"We are all reliant on each other," said Coghlan. "The threats to our
customers' trust in us will not lessen. Without remorse, and without rest,
criminals will seek to undermine our electronic payments system. Together, we
will defend against those attacks."
Addressing how best to ensure continued consumer confidence, a wide range
of experts at the summit explored a number of related areas, including best
practices for safeguarding customer information, dissecting a data compromise
event, and how best to combat identity theft and assist its victims.
"Together, we actually have the intent, the capabilities, and the
resources to harden our environment even further and secure the trust of
consumers and businesses," declared Coghlan, who highlighted examples of how
Visa is answering the challenge. Through significant investments in
technology, the incidence of Visa-system fraud has fallen to just 6 cents per
$100 transacted, even as the volume of Visa card transactions has grown. "I
have also directed an increase in our spending in anti-fraud measures by at
least $200 million over the next four years."
To conclude his remarks, Coghlan outlined some specific areas where he
believes the payments industry can best work together to enhance security.
Specifically, he called for:

* A national, uniform data protection standard for every entity that
retains sensitive personal information.

* A national standard for consumer disclosure of security breaches in
place of multiple state laws.

* Tougher penalties for criminals responsible for card and data fraud.

* International collaboration to ensure that data thieves are brought to
justice. Specifically, Visa supports an international treaty that bans
trafficking in stolen card data and legislation that would give the FTC
greater ability to cooperate with law enforcement agencies worldwide to
fight cross-border fraud.

Visa Fraud Report
Providing new insight into the current state of card fraud, Visa released
a new fraud report detailing recent successes and challenges on the horizon.
According to the report:

* Visa's fraud rate has decreased by 7 percent per year from 1990 to
2004, even as Visa's volume has increased 16 percent annually.

* Visa's continual monitoring systems flag roughly 250,000 transactions
every day for possible fraud, providing instantaneous alerts to card
issuers so they can take action.

* Visa has been involved in over 80 separate fraud investigations during
2005.

* Merchants saved $12.6 million in 2004 as a result of the fraud
protections provided by Verified by Visa. Verified by Visa is a
service that authenticates cardholders for Internet purchases.

* Visa has realized a 54.3 percent drop in chargebacks over the last 5
years (or a savings of $1.5 billion to merchants), due to programs such
as RED (Re-Engineering Disputes), a transformation of the dispute
resolution process using advanced technology that makes the process
faster, simpler, and more cost-effective for all parties.

New Consumer Fraud Survey
Visa also released a new consumer fraud survey conducted by Javelin
Strategy & Research, which found the following:

* Consumers believe they have a responsibility for protecting themselves
against fraud and that they share that responsibility with payment card
companies, banks and credit unions, credit reporting agencies,
merchants, law enforcement, the government, and themselves.

* Specifically, consumers ranked payment card companies such as Visa
(69.9 percent), card issuers (69.7 percent), their bank or credit union
(70.1 percent), and "myself" (71.1 percent) as those "most responsible"
for protecting them against payments fraud.

* Consumers see banks and payments companies as doing the most to solve
payments fraud, ahead of merchants, credit reporting agencies, and
other entities.

* Banks (73 percent)
* Card associations (70 percent)
* Card issuers (68 percent)
* Consumer groups (64 percent)
* Credit agencies (62 percent)
* Law enforcement (61 percent)
* Merchants (59 percent)

* When asked, more consumers said they would respond to security concerns
by shredding documents (19 percent) than by decreasing their usage of
debit (4 percent) or credit cards (13 percent).

About Visa USA
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. Visa
USA is committed to increasing the choice, convenience, acceptance, and
security of Visa payments for all stakeholders in the payment system --
Members, cardholders and merchants. Through its 14,000 Member financial
institutions, more than 482 million Visa-branded cards have been issued to
cardholders in the United States. Last year, U.S.-based financial
institutions relied on Visa's processing system, VisaNet, to facilitate $1.3
trillion in transactions with unparalleled reliability.
Worldwide, cardholders in over 150 countries carry more than 1 billion
Visa-branded cards, accounting for more than $3 trillion in annual transaction
volume.
Visa offers a trusted, reliable and convenient way to access and mobilize
financial resources -- anytime, anywhere, anyway.