Visa International and Vocent Sign Global Strategic Alliance

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Visa International and Vocent announced that the two companies have entered into a two-year global strategic alliance. This alliance will facilitate new product development opportunities for Visa International utilizing Vocent's biometric voiceprint authentication to ensure secure payment transactions. As part of the alliance, Visa and Vocent will explore opportunities to use Vocent's voiceprint authentication solutions to benefit Visa's member financial institutions, merchants and cardholders. The relationship calls for the companies to work closely together to identify e-commerce, m-commerce and risk management applications that could make use of Vocent's voiceprint authentication solutions and to explore ways to bring Vocent technology, products and systems to an international audience. "Security is a key building block for our vision of universal commerce, the ability for buyers and sellers to conduct transactions anywhere, anytime and any way. This alliance with Vocent provides us with an opportunity to examine the enormous potential of biometric security, specifically voiceprint authentication," said Sarah Perry, senior vice president, Strategic Alliances and Investments at Visa International. "Vocent and Visa share a common vision for a secure marketplace," said Chuck Buffum, President and CEO of Vocent. "Vocent offers solutions that make transactions safer by providing secure, remote authentication of users' identities. This strategic alliance will enable Vocent to work closely with Visa to answer the unique needs of the organization's member banks." As a first step in this strategic alliance, Vocent will deploy a voiceprint authentication solution to automate IT help desk services for Visa employees.