Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / Visa Europe launches campaign to stimulate online card payments in Romania

Visa Europe, together with member banks in Romania, announces the launch of the national campaign promoting the usage of cards for online payments. The campaign includes educational activities, such as PR and marketing initiatives, aimed at raising Romanians’ awareness on the safety of online payments and at fostering cards activation in Verified by Visa, said the company in a press release.

Currently, less than 200,000 cards of the total 9 million cards pre-enrolled by banks in Romania have been activated in the 3D Secure platforms, such as the service Verified by Visa, which secures online transactions by card.

“We have to overcome the lack of information around the security of online transactions and to convince Romanians of the safety of these transactions through the Verified by Visa platform. Currently, we are working together with the member banks to simplify the enrolment procedure in Verified by Visa, while maintaining an optimal level of security. The development of e-commerce and improvement of services for the population, such as the possibility of paying taxes online by cards, depend on these challenges”, states Cătălin Creţu, General Manager România, Visa Europe.

The Verified by Visa service protects cards against unauthorised transactions and offers total confidence when shopping online. Verified by Visa adds an additional layer of security that verifies the legitimacy of both parties in an online transaction.

More precisely, the cardholder who enrolled in Verified by Visa performs a transaction only after entering the password set when having initially signed up for Verified by Visa.

The cardholders have the possibility to enrol in Verified by Visa on the website of the issuing bank or while they are shopping online, directly on the merchant’s website, through Activation during Shopping (ADS). This innovative feature allows the participating issuer to deliver an instant activation message to any cardholders who are shopping online at Verified by Visa merchants.

“We want Romanians to understand that online transactions are secure, easy, better than cash transactions. For instance, shoppers have the guarantee they can get their money back if they are the victim of online fraud, if their order was not delivered or was delivered damaged”, says Catalin Cretu.

Visa data show that 84% of Europeans who do not shop online are more likely to do so with Verified by Visa, while 71% of those who normally shop online say they would do so more frequently.
Over 300,000 online retailers in Europe have enrolled in Verified by Visa. In Romania, over 500 online shops use the 3D Secure standard, according to RomCard data.

Enrolling in Verified by Visa generated savings of approximately EUR 225 million for companies and online merchants in 2010, by reducing online fraud and transactions costs, as well as by attracting more and more clients on their websites, and it is estimated that it would bring additional savings of EUR 375 million until the end of 2013.

For more details about online security and Verified by Visa, please access visa.ro that has been recently updated with more information on the benefits of this service. Moreover, you can see the full list of banks and online merchants who enrolled in Verified by Visa.