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IFS International and Visa International Announce Strategic Worldwide CEPS partnership
TROY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 7, 2000--IFS International, Inc (Nasdaq:IFSH - news) today announced that it is working with Visa International to develop and test systems which comply with the Visa Cash Electronic Purse Specifications (VCEPS), based on the Common Electronic Purse Specifications (CEPS).
IFS' TPII product will be used in VCEPS test environments using Visa Cash cards in Spain, Latin America and the United States. It means that Visa will be able to offer its member banks (21,000 world-wide) a competitive solution for acquiring and issuing multi-application smart cards.
IFS International has previously delivered operational TPII Visa Cash solutions to Visa processing centers in the USA, UK and Japan. The TPII product has now been extended and will be providing Visa and its members with the ability to begin migrating existing Visa Cash programs to CEPS.
The TPII and TP-CMS products offered by IFS support all appropriate aspects of CEPS from the initial card issuance through acquiring, clearing, settlement and service file support. Visa and IFS will jointly complete the interoperability test before full roll out of the product solutions to Visa members.
David L. Hodge, President and CEO at IFS International commented: ``IFS is proud that our TPII products have, for some time, been used at the Visa International processing centers in the USA, UK and Japan to support Visa Cash reloads. This new work with Visa International will allow Visa members worldwide to implement proven TPII and TP-CMS systems to deliver CEPS compliant card programs.
Georgann Scally, Vice President, Electronic Purse, at Visa International, said: ``IFS will be playing a crucial role in helping Visa and its member banks migrate existing Visa Cash programs to CEPS, as well as implementing new VCEPS programs. Using the Visa Cash Electronic Purse Specifications, which build on CEPS, IFS will ensure that we achieve full interoperability between the 60 plus Visa Cash programs which currently exist worldwide and numerous others which will start to come on-line over the next few years.'
IFS International, Inc. and Network Controls International, Inc. are subsidiaries of IFS International Holdings, Inc. which has headquarters in the USA and subsidiary offices in the USA, UK, Singapore, Australia and Germany.
IFS International, Inc. develops, markets and supports software products for the EFT market. IFS International's TPII and TP-CMS products provide support for ATMs, Point of Sale devices, network switches, smart cards and card management. NCI, Inc. develops innovative retail delivery applications like NCI Business Centre(TM), which combines network centric and browser based technologies in ``One Application' to automate all delivery channels such as branch teller, platform service, call center, internet banking and customer relationship management.
CEPS
CEPS define requirements for all components needed by an organization to implement a globally interoperable electronic purse program, while maintaining full accountability and auditability. CEPS, which was made available in March of 1999, outlines overall system security, certification and migration. CEPS has paved the way for the creation of an open, de facto, global electronic purse standard. Currently, organizations from 22 countries, representing more than 90 percent of the world's electronic purse cards have agreed to implement CEPS. In addition, over 200 organizations have signed license agreements for CEPS and have received the specifications. CEPS is available to all interested parties. To protect the intellectual property rights, a license agreement has to be signed to receive the specifications. Since CEPS is based on an open standardization policy there is no license fee or royalties. However, a small charge is made to cover printing, shipping, and handling costs.
Visa International
As the `World's Best Way to Pay', Visa is the leading payment brand and the largest consumer payment system worldwide with more volume than all other major payment cards combined. Visa plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products and technologies to benefit its 21,000 member financial institutions and their cardholders. Visa has more than 70 smart card programs in 33 countries and on the Internet, with 23 million Visa chip cards, including over 8 million Visa Cash cards. Visa is pioneering SET Secure Electronic Transaction(TM) programs to enable and advance Internet commerce. There are more than 800 million Visa, Interlink, PLUS and Visa Cash cards, which generate nearly US$1.4 trillion in annual volume. Visa-branded cards are accepted at more than 16 million worldwide locations, including at over 480,000 ATMs in the Visa Global ATM Network. www.visa.com |
