SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Today Visa (NYSE:V) announced it is launching a major effort to
encourage businesses to go cashless. Aiming to create a culture where
cash is no longer king, the program will give merchants increased
ability to accept all forms of global digital payments. Visa will be
encouraging and helping merchants go cashless by using innovation to
their advantage in order to stay competitively connected to their
customers.
To encourage businesses to go cashless, Visa is announcing The
Visa Cashless Challenge, with a call to action for small business
restaurants, cafés or food truck owners to describe what cashless means
for them, their employees and customers. Visa will be awarding up to
$500,000 to 50 eligible US-based small business food service owners who
commit to joining the 100% cashless quest.
“At Visa, we believe you can be everywhere you want to be, and that it
should be easy to pay and be paid in more ways than ever – whether it’s
a phone, card, wearable or other device,” said Jack Forestell, head of
global merchant solutions, Visa Inc. “With 70% of the world, or more
than 5 billion people, connected via mobile device by 20201,
we have an incredible opportunity to educate merchants and consumers
alike on the effectiveness of going cashless.”
Benefits of Going Cashless
Visa has recognized the net benefits for merchants when they reduce
dependency on cash transaction. Visa recently conducted a study that
found that if businesses in 100 cities transitioned from cash to
digital, their cities stand to experience net benefits of $312 billion
per year. According to this study, in New York City alone, businesses
could generate an additional $6.8 billion in revenue and save more than
186 million hours in labor, by making greater use of digital payments.
This amounts to more than $5 billion annual costs savings for businesses
in New York. The complete results with the benefits of going cashless
for businesses will be included in the “Cashless Cities: Realizing the
Benefits of Digital Payments” report that will be released by Visa later
this year.
Cashless in Action
To showcase the benefits of going cashless, Visa will tap into its
sponsorship as the official payment partner of Formula E to offer
cashless, digital payment acceptance at the first-ever Formula E race in
Brooklyn, the New York City ePrix.
“To Visa, a cashless culture means convenience, security and ease of
use. That translates to freedom for consumers and merchants alike,” said
Forestell. “The Formula E race is the ideal backdrop because just as
Formula E is bringing the future to racing, Visa is bringing the future
to payments.”
In addition, local New York City restaurants, including 2nd
City, Fish
Cheeks, and Mulberry
and Vine are offering their customers cashless experiences during
the race weekend. These participating venues are bringing to life
paperless, seamless and enhanced payment experiences for their customers
over the weekend.
About Visa
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that
connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments
in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable
electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced
processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than
65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for
consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does
not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers.
Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers
to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead with
prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit https://usa.visa.com/
and @VisaNews.
1 Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data
Traffic Forecast Update, 2015-2020
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170712005360/en/
Source: Visa Inc.