News - Visa U.S.A. & VeriSign Partner to Deliver New
E-Commerce Services to Web Merchants
biz.yahoo.com
Wednesday May 12, 8:02 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: VeriSign, Inc.
Visa Member Banks Enabled to Provide Internet Trust Services to Customers
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa U.S.A. and VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN - news), today
announced a major agreement to deliver comprehensive and cost-effective Internet payment solutions to serve the e-commerce
business needs of Visa Acquirers and merchants. The two organizations will deliver a value added e-commerce solution that
can be customized and branded to enable Acquirers to issue VeriSign SSL (Secure Socket Layer) digital certificates to
merchants wishing to accept payments securely over the Internet. This new service should allow participating Member banks to
increase their profitability through incremental Internet transaction volume and further extend their trusted brands to the Internet.
''This new solution supports our strategy to deliver a practical, secure and cost effective e-commerce payment infrastructure.
At the same time, this solution creates new revenue opportunities and provides for differentiation among our Members,'' said
Steve Ryan, senior vice president, Emerging Technologies, Visa U.S.A. ''By selecting VeriSign as our SSL digital certificate
provider, we ensure that our Acquirers and merchants are able to leverage VeriSign's global trust infrastructure and the
strongest certificate services available. These are critical factors in accelerating the growth of e-commerce among consumers
and merchants worldwide.''
As Visa's preferred digital certificate provider, VeriSign will make available a turn-key infrastructure for all of Visa U.S.A.'s
Acquirers to issue SSL compliant digital certificates. Working together, VeriSign and Visa will streamline the process by which
merchants obtain digital certificates, enabling Acquirers to directly issue digital certificates to their merchants. This enables Web
sites secured by VeriSign certificates to conduct encrypted transactions over the Internet. By leveraging VeriSign's global
infrastructure, Acquirers will now extend their role as the trusted authenticator for merchants to the Internet and will enjoy
improved online merchant tracking capabilities. Plans call for this service to be launched this summer.
''We believe our new partnership with Visa will significantly help its network of Acquirers and merchants provide consumers
with the confidence needed to purchase goods and services safely over the Internet,'' said Stratton Sclavos, president and CEO
of VeriSign. ''Today's agreement signals the continued momentum and importance of the Internet as a prevailing force in our
economy today.''
How It Works
When a consumer wishes to make a Visa transaction over the Internet, a merchant's site is authenticated through the use of the
merchant's Web site digital certificate. The information is then transmitted between the consumer and the merchant, including
sensitive personal information, and the credit card number is transmitted securely via an encrypted transaction.
VeriSign Web site Digital Certificates issued to merchants will act as electronic credentials to authenticate the identity of a web
site to visitors and to enable secure, encrypted transactions and communications using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
protocol. Proprietary VeriSign technology has been pre-installed into the vast majority of Microsoft, AOL, and Netscape Web
browsers in use today to allow them to recognize VeriSign Web site certificates when consumers connect to a merchant. In
addition, VeriSign is the only digital certificate provider in the world to currently have a license from the Department of
Commerce to issue very strong, 128-bit certificates to online merchants, thus providing the strongest allowable encryption
technology for Internet transactions.
VeriSign, Inc.
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN - news) is the leading provider of Internet trust services and digital certificate solutions needed
by Web sites, enterprises, electronic commerce service providers and individuals to conduct trusted and secure electronic
commerce and communications over IP networks. To learn more about VeriSign, visit www.verisign.com.
About Visa
As the World's Best Way to Pay, Visa is the leading payment brand on the Internet 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. Visa's Internet address is www.visa.com.
VeriSign is a registered trademark exclusively licensed to VeriSign, Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective
owners.
SOURCE: VeriSign, Inc. |
