PayPal and Visa Enter Partnership to Extend Consumer Payment Choice

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Companies Collaborate to Accelerate the Adoption of Digital Payments

SAN JOSE, Calif. & SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jul. 21, 2016– PayPal(NASDAQ:PYPL) and Visa (NYSE:V) today announced a U.S. strategic partnership that will result in an improved and more seamless payment experience for Visa cardholders and will offer greater choice in how consumers pay with the PayPaland Venmo wallets.

The partnership puts PayPal and Visa on a new path, with the companies working more collaboratively to accelerate the adoption of safe, reliable and convenient digital payments for consumers and merchants. Further, the arrangement is designed to carry significant benefits for issuing financial institutions, acquirers, and merchants. For issuing institutions, these include a better customer experience, more spending volume on their credit and debit cards, lower operational costs, and improved security. Merchants will also benefit from the improved customer experience, efficiency, and security, which together will help drive increased sales.

Details of this agreement include:

  • Enhanced Consumer Choice and Improved Experience for Visa Cardholders: PayPal will make it easier for new and existing customers to choose to pay with their Visa cards and ensure a more seamless experience:
    • Visa cards will be presented as a clear and equal payment option during enrollment and subsequent payments, with an easy ability for consumers to set as their preferred payment method
    • Visa digital card images will be incorporated into payment flows
    • PayPal will not encourage Visa cardholders to link to a bank account via ACH
    • PayPal will also support and work with issuers to identify consumers who choose to migrate existing ACH payment flows to their Visa cards
  • PayPal will Join the Visa Digital Enablement Program (VDEP) to Expand Point of Sale Acceptance: PayPal will join VDEP, a commercial framework for Visa partners to access Visa’s token services and other digital capabilities in the United States. This will enhance transaction security and expand acceptance for PayPal’s digital wallet to all physical retail locations where Visa contactless transactions are enabled. Consistent with VDEP, issuers will be able to choose whether to participate and retailers can expect to pay fees that are consistent with other contactless transactions they accept today.
  • Instant Withdrawal of Money: Consumers will be able to instantly withdraw and move money from their PayPal and Venmo accounts to their bank account via their Visa debit cards leveraging Visa Direct – providing an experience that offers speed, security and convenience.
  • Enhanced Data Quality: PayPal will ensure that data provided to issuers and their cardholders for Visa-funded transactions will be consistent with the information that is received with traditional Visa card transactions. This will ensure a better consumer experience, reduce cardholder confusion, ensure proper application of rewards, and reduce costly and time-consuming disputes.
  • Economic Incentives: The agreement affords PayPal certain economic incentives, including Visa incentives for increased volume, and greater long-term Visa fee certainty.

“Giving consumers choice in how and where they pay is essential to our goal of being a customer champion and we welcome the opportunity to work with more partners like Visa who share our vision,” said Dan Schulman, president and chief executive officer, PayPal. “This agreement opens new avenues for PayPal to collaborate with Visa, financial institutions, and others in the payments ecosystem to deliver greater value, more choice, and new experiences for our joint customers wherever they transact – online, in-app or in-store.”

“We are excited to begin a new chapter with PayPal. Our agreement provides a framework for our companies to work together collaboratively,” said Charlie Scharf, chief executive officer, Visa. “PayPal has built industry leading capabilities which complement those of Visa and our clients, and working together, we will be able to deliver better solutions for consumers and merchants. At Visa, we are focused on growth by providing our issuer and acquirer clients – and their clients, merchants and consumers – with the best way to pay and be paid everywhere and this agreement supports this approach.”

About PayPal

At PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL), we put people at the center of everything we do. Founded in 1998, we continue to be at the forefront of the digital payments revolution. PayPal gives people better ways to manage and move their money, offering them choice and flexibility in how they are able to send money, pay or get paid. We operate an open, secure and technology agnostic payments platform that businesses use to securely transact with their customers online, in stores and increasingly on mobile devices. In 2015, 28% of the 4.9 billion payments we processed were made on a mobile device. PayPal is a truly global payments platform that is available to people in more than 200 markets, allowing customers to get paid in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 56 currencies and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 25 currencies. For more information on PayPal, visit https://www.paypal.com/about. For PYPL financial information, visit https://investor.paypal-corp.com.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa,visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNews.

Can I use CenPOS gateway for Quickbooks electronic invoicing EIPP alternative?

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Businesses can use the CenPOS Quickbooks integration for einvoicing and payment from text or email. The CenPOS electronic bill presentment and payment, or EBPP, also known as electronic invoice presentment and payment, or EIPP, will improve your customer experience and boost cash flow, as an alternative to the Intuit PaymentNetwork.

cenpos eipp electronic invoice presentment and payment

CenPOS EIPP screenshot of email body

Intuit PaymentNetwork is an electronic invoicing and payment service to accept credit cards, debit cards and ACH payments. CenPOS is a univeral payment processing network that streamlines the payment experience for merchants and customers through all sales channels, and multiple payment types. The CenPOS Quickbooks plugin is easy to use increases profits and cashflow vs Intuit einvoicing solution.

CenPOS vs Quickbooks Intuit EIPP Core Differences:

EIPP Quickbooks Intuit vs CenPOS reviewSome specific advantages:

  • Easier for customers to buy- proven to reduce DS, and increase satisfaction
  • Easier for customers to buy- proven to increase business to business sales
  • Agnostic to financial partners- non-disruptive if you change them
  • Does not create a new customer if the cardholder name does not match the name on the invoice (big complaint for Quickbooks users)

When comparing CenPOS vs Intuit’s Quickbooks EIPP solutions, CenPOS is a far more robust and powerful solution to maximize profits. Contact us for the free plugin and CenPOS services.

Financial CHOICE Act Will Turbocharge the American Economy

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Washington, June 28, 2016 – 15 national conservative organizations and prominent activists announced they “wholeheartedly endorse” the Financial CHOICE Act, saying the Republican plan to replace the failed Dodd-Frank Act will “turbocharge the American economy.”

“If we want the economy to improve — if we want to give all Americans the chance to prosper again — we need to put an end to Washington’s destructive regulatory agenda once and for all,” the conservative groups write in their endorsement letter.  “The Financial CHOICE Act aims to curb regulations to create opportunity and choice for investors, consumers, and entrepreneurs nationwide.”

The conservative organizations highlighted key features of the Financial CHOICE Act in their endorsement, noting the Republican plan will end taxpayer-funded bailouts for “too big to fail” banks, demand accountability from financial regulators, and “end the crony debit card price control scheme.”

“The Financial CHOICE Act will replace Dodd-Frank’s Orderly Liquidation Authority, which allows financial institutions to be bailed out at the taxpayers’ expense, with a newly updated subchapter of the bankruptcy code.”

“The Durbin Amendment imposed price controls and other mandates on debit card transaction fees with the false promise that billions would be passed on to consumers. Consumers have not received the promised discount. In fact, studies show that many consumers have lost access to free checking and debit card rewards as a result.”

“Housed at the Federal Reserve, the CFPB has the ability to put entire industries out of business with the snap of its fingers. Its unelected director can simply declare financial products “abusive” and outlaw them without Congressional approval. The Financial CHOICE Act will replace the single director with a bipartisan, five-member committee subject to congressional oversight and appropriations.”

“Dodd-Frank is a failure.  Democrats told us it would ‘promote financial stability,’ ‘end Too Big to Fail,’ and ‘lift the economy.’  But Dodd-Frank has done the exact opposite,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX).  “The Financial CHOICE Act offers economic growth for all and bank bailouts for none.  It’s the Republican plan to reignite growth by replacing Dodd-Frank with real reforms that work.”

To read the letter, click here. (PDF download from Federal website)

To learn more about the Financial CHOICE Act, visit FinancialServices.house.gov/CHOICE.

 

Merchants Oppose Poison Pill That Undercuts Competition, Main Street and Consumers

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“Without debit reform’s competition-enhancing standards, banks would be free to return to the days of unfettered price fixing.”

June 24, 2016 WASHINGTON (BUSINESS WIRE)

Yesterday, Chairman Jeb Hensarling of the House Financial Services Committee gave a speech about his commitment to helping Main Street and ending government bailouts. Unfortunately, the draft bill he released later in the day does the exact opposite.

Section 335 of chairman’s Hensarling’s discussion draft of the “CHOICE Act” favors the interests of fewer than two percent of the nation’s largest banks and the credit-card brands over the interests of small retailers, their employees and consumers in every Congressional district in the country.

This bill would turn back reforms that created a freer market and prevented Visa and MasterCard from price-fixing the fees their member banks charge merchants when customers swipe a debit card to buy something. Rep. Hensarling would turn the clock back six years to when financial institutions operated this “swipe fee” business as a rigged market without competition.

The reforms Rep. Hensarling proposes to repeal also brought competition into the debit- routing market, where previously there was none. Repealing these reforms removes requirements for networks to compete and paves the way for network monopolies, reducing our payment security while raising costs for all American consumers and retailers and harming our economy as a whole.

“Without debit reform’s competition-enhancing standards, banks would be free to return to the days of unfettered price fixing,” said Mallory Duncan, chairman of the Merchants Payments Coalition and senior vice president and general counsel at the National Retail Federation. “It’s important to remember that despite the smokescreen the big banks put up, debit reform is an incontrovertible success and should be protected.”

Join the millions of Main Street businesses in every Congressional district in calling for Chairman Hensarling to remove his poison-pill language that leaves the debit- card market without competition.

The Merchants Payments Coalition represents 2.7 million stores, including restaurants, supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, gas stations, on-line merchants and others, with 50 million employees, fighting unfair credit-card fees and working for a competitive and transparent system for merchants and consumers.

Contacts
Merchants Payments Coalition
Michael Flagg, 202-253-4164

Visa to Help Accelerate EMV Chip Migration and Support Merchants

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Streamlined certification, financial and technical support to further accelerate EMV chip terminal deployment

Modified chargeback policies will provide near term relief to merchants who are not yet chip-ready

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jun. 16, 2016– Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) today announced a series of initiatives to help accelerate EMV chip migration for merchants. Visa has streamlined its testing requirements, amended and simplified the terminal certification process, and committed to investing further resources and technical expertise in a manner that can reduce timeframes by as much as 50 percent. Visa is also making policy changes to help limit exposure to counterfeit fraud liability for merchants who are not yet chip-ready.

visa

Chip card technology helps prevent fraud the results from data compromises. (Photo: Business Wire)

While the U.S. migration to chip technology is a significant undertaking, tremendous progress has been made to-date with over 300 million chip cards in market and 1.2 million merchant locations now accepting chip cards. An average of 23,000 new merchant locations become chip-ready each week. Despite the success to date, a migration of this size takes time and hence many merchants still require help to cross the finish line.

Streamlined Implementation

Before a merchant can turn on a new chip terminal, it needs to be tested to ensure it works properly for the merchant and cardholder. Chip technology can be implemented in different ways based on the unique needs of a merchant, and therefore, different merchants need to be tested in different ways. The more complex a merchant’s point of sale environment, the greater the number of tests. However, Visa has streamlined its testing requirements to significantly reduce the complexity, time, and cost of implementation.

By way of example, a national grocery chain recently followed Visa’s streamlined approach and completed development, testing, and certification months ahead of schedule.

Acquirers Can “Self-Certify” Their Solutions

Going a step further, Visa will provide acquirers greater discretion to determine the appropriate level of testing required to ensure a merchant’s solution is ready. Acquirers know their merchants better than anyone, so providing acquirers with the commercial flexibility to self-certify their clients will further reduce certification wait times for solutions that acquirers are confident are ready.

Visa is also exploring a system for acquirers to share certification test results with each other to avoid testing duplication. That is, if a certain merchant configuration (e.g., restaurants with specific hardware and software) is known to consistently work with one acquirer, then other acquirers should be aware of this and take it into consideration as they make their decisions.

Incremental Funding and Resources to Support Migration

Visa will increase its investment to support both acquirers and the value-added resellers (VARs) that develop the software to power chip terminals. Visa funding will be available to help acquirers with any specific resource constraints they may be facing, as well as to help VARs pre-certify their software solutions in a manner that will significantly reduce the subsequent testing at acquirers by up to 80 percent.

In addition, Visa will provide hands-on support to VARs who may need technical information, education, consulting, and training. A dedicated team of Visa experts will be available to provide direct support in the form of webinars and direct one-on-one conversations, as needed.

“Visa recognizes the importance of having the industry help merchants get their chip terminal solutions up and running quickly so that everyone, especially consumers, can benefit from the powerful security protection of chip technology,” said Oliver Jenkyn, Group Executive North America, Visa Inc. “We’ve taken steps to simplify the process as much as possible and help reduce any challenges so merchants can move forward with chip adoption quickly.”

“Vantiv has been relentlessly working to help merchants upgrade their point-of-sale systems to new levels of security with EMV,” said Royal Cole, Group President, Merchant and Financial Institution Services at Vantiv. “To help accelerate this process, we’ve been working with Visa to find comprehensive ways to further streamline the conversion process for the entire ecosystem – from software developer partners to the smallest-sized businesses. We are very encouraged by the new measures and programs that Visa is announcing today, and we hope others will join in instituting similar programs.”

Counterfeit Chargeback Policy Changes

Historically, issuers have been responsible for the full cost of counterfeit fraud that takes place at a merchant. In 2011, to support the migration to EMV chip technology, Visa announced a liability shift that became effective in October 2015. With this change, the cost of counterfeit fraud is the responsibility of the party – either the merchant or the issuer – that has not implemented chip technology. Given that some merchants are still working to get their chip terminals enabled and certified, they may now be bearing the cost of counterfeit fraud originated in their stores. Visa’s actions today seek to alleviate the impact on merchants while they work through the transition.

Visa is modifying its policies to limit the number of fraudulent transactions that issuers can charge back to merchants (and their acquirers). Effective July 22, 2016, Visa will block all U.S. counterfeit fraud chargebacks under $25. These smaller chargebacks generate a great deal of work and expense for merchants and acquirers, with limited financial impact for issuing banks. In addition, effective October 2016, issuers will also be limited to charging back 10 fraudulent counterfeit transactions per account, and will assume liability for all fraudulent transactions on the account thereafter. This reinforces the responsibility issuers already have to detect and act on counterfeit fraud quickly. These blocks will stay in effect until April 2018.

These two changes together will significantly reduce the number chargebacks that merchants are seeing. Following these changes, merchants can expect to see 40 percent fewer counterfeit chargebacks, and a 15 percent reduction in U.S. counterfeit fraud dollars being charged back.

For more information, acquirers and processors should contact their Visa account executive.

About Visa Inc.: Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit usa.visa.com/about-visa, visacorporate.tumblr.com and @VisaNews.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160616005425/en/

Source: Visa Inc.

Visa Inc.
Sandra Chu, +1 415-805-4124
sanchu@visa.com
Lea Cademenos, +1 415-805-4271
lcademen@visa.com