Tuesday, November 21, 2006

First V-pay transaction in Europe

See the Visa press release and read:
The first V PAY transaction in Austria took place on November 15, 2006 at Denkstein in Salzburg's Getreidegasse with the attendance of Annika Karlsson Hill, Vice-President Visa Europe, Jutta Müller-Liefeld, Country Manager Austria, Visa Europe and Hubert Neumayr, CEO hobex AG.

Just one tiny hickup; V-Pay is always PIN - always Chip. So its potential penetration is dependant on the rate with which retailers move to EMV. As opposed to the Maestro brand that allows stripe-PIN transactions and thus may be a better bet for customers/banks/retailers that focus on smooth transitions.