Visa e-payment solutions enhance gov't transactions

MANILA, Philippines - Smart electronic payment (e-payment) solutions from Visa International can help government agencies manage costs and streamline operations, a recent poll showed.

When it comes to managing public funds, more than half of the Asia Pacific government agencies polled in the survey said they are most challenged to get the job done by budget cuts, pressure to streamline operations, and late payments.

The poll also revealed that these agencies are not able to optimize efficiencies because they rely heavily on manual processes and cash and checks when making payments to vendors and citizens.

Visa country manager for Philippines and Guam Iain Jamieson said that the reliance on cash and checks causes many of the administrative inefficiencies that agencies face today and are a hindrance to the important social and economic work they need to do.

Moving to an electronic payments and reporting system from a paper-based one, would resolve many of the issues associated with the complexity of managing public funds and help agencies save money, and improve productivity and transparency.

“From managing travel expenses to making social security payouts to citizens, the Visa Commercial Solutions suite of products, including our Visa Corporate and Visa Purchasing cards as well as our intelligent management reporting systems, can help government agencies enhance data collection and monitoring, drive cost savings and streamline operations,” Jamieson added.

One hundred top finance and procurement officials from central government, city administration and hospital management agencies across Asia Pacific were surveyed by Visa at the FutureGov Asia Pacific Summit 2011.

These public sector leaders are responsible for the disbursement of subsidies and loans, tax refunds, disaster relief to citizens, as well as payments for wages, pensions and suppliers.

The Visa poll revealed that the top two challenges faced by public funds managers were funding cuts (58 percent) and the need to drive efficiency improvements (57 percent).

Other issues this group needed to address were tackling late payments (41 percent), improving accountability for the management of public funds (39 percent) and the shadow economy (25 percent).

More than half of those polled (58 percent) also said they still rely on cash and checks to pay beneficiaries and businesses.

Visa has helped public sector organizations globally adopt electronic payment technologies, including those from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Korea.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories through digital currency.

Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks – VisaNet – that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants.