Transaction processor Vital, a joint venture owned by Visa USA and TSYS, is pushing on multiple fronts into new markets.
The Tempe, Ariz.-based company is gearing up to grab a chunk of the market for PIN-based debit, in part by demonstrating to merchants how the money they now save on signature-based debit transactions in the wake of the card associations’ settlement of the Wal-Mart case can be used to subsidize investments in PIN equipment (see “How the Wal-Mart Settlement Could Pay for PIN Pads”).
Beyond that, the company is also in the process of rolling out a product supporting gift card transactions and plans soon to announce a fleet-fueling-card product. “We want people to see us as more debit friendly,” says Phillip L. Kumnick, senior vice president for global partner solutions at Vital, which in 2002 processed more than 9 billion credit card transactions.