Visa Inc. announced the opening of a new global data processing center in North America. Concurrently, Visa implemented several IT enhancements, chief among them the implementation of a new operating system that underpins VisaNet, its global transaction processing network. Together, these technology investments further enhance the flexibility, reliability and scale of VisaNet, and increase Visa's ability to process the ever-growing number of increasingly complex electronic payments around the world, which now account for 33% of global consumer spending. Greater reliability, capacity-The opening of the new center is a key milestone in Visa's multi-year technology upgrade, that results in Visa now having two synchronized, secure and reliable data centers in North America, each capable of carrying Visa's entire global payments volume in the event of a natural disaster or systems outage. Instant fail-over technology between Visa data centers around the globe ensures the 5-nine level of uninterrupted service that cardholders, merchants, governments and financial institutions have come to expect from Visa. New operating system--Developed in partnership with IBM, the system, known as z(TM) Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF), is a 64-bit operating system that allows more information to be manipulated at once and perform more complex processing functions in milliseconds. Importantly, this paves the way for Visa to deliver new, information-intensive applications such as advanced fraud analysis, and mobile payments and services. Enhanced security-This centralized processing structure, combined with the new operating system, provides Visa with a comprehensive view into the global payment system, leading to high levels of intelligence around spending patterns, enabling Visa to provide a broad range of information-based services, and improving the company's ability to detect and prevent fraud in near real-time.

An Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to defendant Visa Inc. in this Title VII suit by plaintiff software engineer, who alleges he was terminated in discrimination against his Chinese national origin. In spring 2006, plaintiff, who was supervised remotely from California, was placed on a project to write source code for a program called 'Listener,' as part of a larger project named 'VIPER.' In August 2006, he was scheduled to travel to California for planned training on another of the subordinate VIPER programs, but he failed to do so. In September, Visa asked plaintiff to take classes to improve his English pronunciation, which he eventually took, but he declined the company's offer to pay for the classes and instead paid for them himself. Plaintiff initially received a low performance rating in 2006, but the rating was later upgraded. A supervisor changed the 'performance review acknowledgement' procedure for the entire group in which plaintiff worked. In November 2006, plaintiff was reassigned from 'Listener' to BMC Remedy, and his share of Listener was transferred to another employee of Chinese national origin, Kin Yim. Plaintiff was granted two weeks of leave, and he filed his initial EEOC charge on Nov. 20, 2006. He missed work without prior approval on Jan. 21, 2007. In February 2007, plaintiff submitted an expense report that included a $42 'snack.' The supervisor changed the expense reimbursement policy and corporate card usage for practices for plaintiff's group. Visa attempted to place plaintiff on a 'performance improvement plan,' and he took two weeks of FMLA leave. Visa terminated plaintiff's employment on March 29, 2007.

ClairMail Inc. announced that it has signed a development and deployment agreement with Visa Inc. that allows ClairMail to integrate Visa mobile services into the mobile banking and payments infrastructure that ClairMail provides to leading financial institutions. ClairMail bank customers who are also Visa clients can take immediate advantage of Visa's mobile services by adding them to an existing mobile banking deployment and creating a more comprehensive mobile banking offering. Visa mobile services include applications that support mobile payments, tailored merchant offers, and near-real time transaction alerts and notifications. The agreement adds new functionality to ClairMail's best-of-breed mobile banking and payments platform, and expands the value of ClairMail services to its bank customers. The ClairMail platform provides end users with comprehensive mobile banking and payments functionality, optimizing user experience across any delivery method--SMS, email, mobile web or Smart Client application. The ClairMail platform also delivers personalized and conversational alerting capabilities that empower users to conduct transactions, and respond to or resolve account activity within the mobile channel.