Visa Processing Service begins operations this week and will focus on customers from the Asia Pacific, Latin America and CEMEA regions. VPS will be headquartered in Singapore and governed by a board of directors from both Visa and Yalamanchili.

Initially, the joint venture will focus on providing financial institutions, processors and other payment companies with prepaid and debit processing solutions. Like Visa, VPS will also have capabilities to provide credit, ATM, money transfer and private label processing, as well as a range of payments services, including risk and fraud management, mobile applications, loyalty and cardholder support.

"Visa Processing Service will allow us to immediately and cost-effectively enter new geographies with a scalable and high-quality processing offering. Based on our success in the United States, we know that issuer processing is a critical component of an integrated debit strategy. Processing capabilities enhance Visa's ability to see and analyse each transaction, providing greater opportunities to add value for financial institutions, cardholders and merchants," said Joseph W. Saunders, chairman and CEO of Visa.

As part of the joint venture agreement, Visa will incorporate Yalamanchili's technology with Visa's payments expertise and existing processing infrastructure.

Yalamanchili will provide its suite of NARADA Software Products--a multi-currency, multi-language platform for debit, prepaid and credit payment transactions; gateway services for international and domestic networks; and acquiring applications, including ATM terminal driving.