Interswitch Completes 3-Party Processing Integration with Visa

Interswitch Transnational, a leading pan-African integrated payments company with operations in Nigeria and a growing presence in West and East Africa, said that its Switching and Processing division-Interswitch S & P has completed third party payment processing integration with Visa.

The completion of the integration agreement with Visa means that Interswitch S & P has become the first company in Nigeria to be able to perform in-country switching, and third party processing for all card brands, including: Verve (the domestic scheme) and international cards such as Discover, Visa, MasterCard, and UnionPay.

Interswitch Switching and Processing offers 3 shared, market facing services to financial institutions and retail businesses in the markets it operates in:  Pureplayswitch(tm) Service through which it offers interbank transaction switching;  TransproTM Service that provides 3rd party issuer/acquirer processing for major card schemes and  RewardTM Service that delivers multi-channel loyalty to banks, merchants and their customers.

This is in addition to standard backoffice services such as fraud management, dispute resolution, clearing and settlement as well as reporting and reconciliation.

The completion of this integration with Visa has been fueled by the desire of banks to consolidate their entire card schemes on a single trusted and reliable platform with a view to reducing their costs to better serve their customers, improving service quality as well as creating access to Interswitch's QuicktellerTM value, added services platform for bill presentment/payment, airtime top-up and real-time funds transfer.

Mr. Akeem Lawal, managing director, Interswitch Switching and Processing, said: "I am excited that with this integration agreement with Visa we are the first processor to deliver the complete service that financial institutions have desired for some time - a robust, trusted and customer-centric platform that processes all cards.  That we are kicking off our Visa processing service with contracts from 4 major banks with 3 others in advanced stages of discussion is a clear indication of how the market sees this achievement".