Unifying the European Payments Landscape

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Unifying the European Payments Landscape

• Marc Temmerman

Executive Vice President, External Relations Visa
EU
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What is Visa?

• A global non-profit making association
• Owned by 20,000 banks worldwide
• 5,000 European banks
• 230 million cards credit, debit, charge and
  pre-paid
• 824 billion annual sales volume
• Visas role
• Managing the brand
• Providing the processing infrastructure
• Agreeing and enforcing the regulations

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Europe a defining contribution

• Cards as primarily a payment mechanism
• A co-operative democratic constitution
• The first to move to chip technology
• Effective governance and control is a priority

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The commercial payment opportunity

• A complete suite of products
• Cost-effective, guaranteed multi-currency
  payments
• Tangible benefits
• Cash flow management
• Access to funds
• Reduced administration costs
• Expenditure tracking
• Compliance monitoring
• Competitive buying policies
• An indication of the potential the UK Government
  Purchasing Card programme

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An indicator of economic well-being
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Macroeconomics of Cashless Payments

• An electronic payment system is ? to ½ the cost
  of an equivalent cash/paper-based system
• Liberates aggregate cost savings of at least 1
  of GDP
• Equates to 58 billion in savings for the Big 5
  European economies alone

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Banking the unbanked

• Electronic payments draw people en mass into
  the banking system
• Promote financial inclusion and institutional
  trust
• Immense economic benefits
• Harnesses low cost, lendable deposits which
  fuel economic growth
• Minimises shadow economies
• Maximises tax revenues

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Economic importance of banking the unbanked
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The global effect

• A 10 shift in electronic payments typically
  creates a direct 0.5 increase in consumer
  spending
• In Europe, a 2 increase in the proportion of
  electronic payments would liberate 26 billion in
  incremental consumer spending

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Our raison dêtre

• To increase the proportion of cashless payments
• 16 of PCE by 2007
• Enable banks to derive more value from VisaNet
• Capable of processing any electronic payments
• Working with accession countries to liberate the
  benefits

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A big change to our constitution

• The creation of Visa Europe
• A separately incorporated company
• A co-owner of Visa International
• Europes banks become the exclusive
  owner-operators of their own regional payment
  system
• Retaining global influence and interoperability
• Coincides with the accession process
• Creation of an Accession Council

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A defining moment

• Creation of external relations function
• Working in partnership with regulators and
  industry bodies
• Promoting the benefits of Visa Direct a low
  cost, high speed funds transfer solution
• Leveraging the investment in chip

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Thank you