"Visa’s crypto head dismissed an earlier report from Reuters about the company halting crypto-related launches as inaccurate. Instead, he said Visa will continue to partner with more cryptocurrency firms that can facilitate stablecoin payments, despite the ongoing bear market."

“Credit giant Visa released a proposal that would let owners of the ether cryptocurrency set up automatic payments directly from their own, self-custodial wallets, a proposal that would not require banks or other centralized entities to be part of the picture.”

“Crypto-users may one day be able to automatically pay their electricity and telephone bills through their self-custodial crypto wallets, according to payments giant Visa. In a Dec. 20 blog post, Visa’s crypto thought leadership team proposed a solution that would allow providers to automatically “pull” funds from users’ Ethereum-powered crypto wallets, without requiring the user to manually sign off on every transaction.”

“Visa, the global provider of digital payments, has implemented a series of new payment security measures in Thailand to help fight cybercrime, protect the payments ecosystem, and keep consumers and businesses safe. The new security measures are part of Visa’s updated “Security Roadmap for Thailand”, which is designed to provide enhanced protection for transactions made online and at physical retailers, according to Pipavin Sodprasert, country manager for Visa Thailand.”

“During the U.S-Africa Business Forum, Visa announced a pledge to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to advance resilient, innovative, and inclusive economies across the continent. Visa’s expanded investments demonstrate the company’s long-term commitment to Africa’s growth potential and will help enable greater access to digital payments as an entry point for expanding formal financial services for individuals and merchants. Visa Chairman and CEO Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. outlined the pledge during the US-Africa Business Forum, alongside the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC. The pledge will further scale Visa’s operations in Africa, and deepen collaboration with strategic partners including governments, financial institutions, mobile network operators, fintechs and merchants. The investments will also focus on strengthening the payment ecosystem through new innovations and technologies, supporting digitization of economies, and investing in upskilling, talent development and capacity building.”

“Highnote, a modern, fully cloud-native card issuance and program management platform, today announces further expansion of its collaboration with Visa, a world leader in digital payments, which includes certification as a Visa card issuer processor under Visa’s fleet management solutions. Through this collaboration, digital companies focused on serving the fleet management ecosystem can now enhance their product offering by issuing Visa fleet and fuel cards that contain more definite product category level controls, more detailed data, and the ability to obtain data more quickly for real-time business decisions, building a new generation of payment rails for the fleet vertical. The fleet and fuel management sector saw explosive innovation in the years following the height of the pandemic, with venture capital funding for startups in the sector almost doubling between 2020 and 20222. A rapidly growing new generation of innovative fleet-focused software platforms have emerged, solving challenges from managing fleet operations to road-freight marketplaces.”

“Visa is once again involved in launching an anonymous debit card eligible for crypto top-ups, thanks to a project by ZELF, a US-based fintech company. The card currently supports USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Ethereum (ETH). ZELF, a US fintech company, has launched its new Visa anonymous debit card that can be topped up with cryptocurrencies.  This is an “anonymous” card, in that users who open a ZELF account only need to provide their name, email and phone number to use it. There is no need to provide any social security number or proof of address like opening a bank account. At the moment, the new Visa debit card supports USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT) and Ethereum (ETH), but ZELF said it plans to add support for 20 more tokens by the end of the year. By choosing the Visa circuit, ZELF’s new card will be able to be used at any of Visa’s 80 million payment points worldwide and thus be topped up through crypto or even traditional electronic payments.”

“Visa announced a seven-year global partnership with GoHenry, the prepaid card and financial education app for 6-to 18-year-olds. Visa will provide support as the exclusive global network partner for GoHenry’s prepaid cards for kids and teens in the US, UK, and Europe. GoHenry helped expand a new category in youth finance 10 years ago with a simple mission: to make every kid smart with money. Since then, with Visa’s support, GoHenry has helped transform financial education for kids, teens, and their parents. The GoHenry financial education app and prepaid card help young people learn about money through several categories including earning, saving, spending responsibly, and charitable giving. The app also enables parents to guide their child’s progress with features like real-time updates and customizable controls.”

“As the world awaits kick-off of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, Visa, the Official Payment Technology Partner of FIFA, has readied a payments network that will enable contactless purchases throughout all official venues, including eight stadiums and the FIFA Fan Festival™. With more than one million fans expected to travel to Qatar for the tournament, Visa has installed 5,300 contactless-enabled payment terminals at official FIFA venues, making FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ the most payment-enabled FIFA tournament ever. Visa will also trial new payment innovations to give fans easy access to simple and secure digital ways to pay. The FIFA World Cup™ provides a global stage for Visa to showcase and test new technologies, enhance the fan experience and leave a lasting impression on the host country. Visa will bring a number of digital payment solutions to Qatar, including several limited pilots to demonstrate how future Visa payment solutions may come to life: Pay with Your Face; Card Art Gets Animated; Accepting Payments Gets Simpler for SMBs; Tap to Ride Around Doha”

It’s not your imagination. Digital scams are everywhere in our daily lives. And as the holiday season approaches, fraudsters are counting on you to let your guard down and take the bait. Whether in the workplace or on the go, we’re peppered by phone, text and email with offers for “free gifts” and traps to “act now” to supply personal information before a vital service gets cut off. And this barrage of “fraudulese” is working.

A new research report out today from Visa , in partnership with Wakefield Research, “Fraudulese: The Language of Fraud,” brings to light that when it comes to spotting scams, cybercriminals are finding vulnerabilities among even the most tech-savvy consumers. While nearly half of the population are confident they can recognize a scam, 73% are likely to miss the requisite red flags in digital communications.