Visa makes cashless-card coup

Seven more banks have joined Visa International's 'Visa Cash' electronic cash programme, bringing to 21 the number of banks offering the product in Hong Kong.

The seven are: Bank of East Asia, Chekiang First Bank, Citibank, Hongkong Chinese Bank, Shanghai Commercial Bank, Wing Hang Bank and Wing Lung Bank.

The Bank of China Group of 13 banks and Standard Chartered Bank started offering Visa Cash products from August 1996.

To date, about 130,000 disposable Visa Cash cards and more than 80,000 reloadable Visa Cash cards have been issued.

Transaction volumes have exceeded $28 million, representing more than 850,000 purchase transactions.

Visa Hong Kong and Macau manager Ivanov Yim said: 'These numbers are a clear indication of the far-reaching acceptance of Visa Cash as the general purpose stored value payment system not only for tomorrow but now.' The card association's general manager for Greater China, Raymond Chan, said: 'Now with the largest group of participating banks in our stored value scheme, we intend to further leverage on this strength and reinforce Visa Cash's dominant position.'