Visa has set up data centres in Singapore and UK to ease payment transactions globally

Global payments technology company, Visa has announced their data centres are now in Singapore and United Kingdom. With the existence of these data centres, processing financial transactions will be easier as the hubs will increase the speed and local/international presence of Visa’s infrastructure while strengthening the company’s ability to deliver new and more sophisticated ways to pay in today’s connected global economy.

Commerce and payments are in the midst of a historic shift from analogue to digital. A growing majority of people around the globe are leaving cash behind and reaching instead for their cards and devices – Rajat Taneja

Executive VP of Technology at Visa, Rajat Taneja says, “commerce and payments are in the midst of a historic shift from analogue to digital. A growing majority of people around the globe are leaving cash behind and reaching instead for their cards and devices to pay.” He claims that with Visa’s technology investments in Asia and Europe, they will be scaling up infrastructure to meet the explosive growth in digital and mobile payments while maintaining the secure, convenient and always-on service that our clients and partners expect.”

Visa says that the Singapore and UK data centres will complement Visa’s existing processing facilities in North America. With four synchronized data centres, Visa’s expanded footprint will boost the redundancy and resilience of its infrastructure, minimizing the likelihood of service disruptions to Visa’s 16,600 financial institutions, millions of merchant acceptance locations, and 3 billion cards.

The two centres are said to be equipped with the best-in-class technology, including high-performance hardware and energy-efficient power and cooling infrastructure. Visa also revealed plans to start processing global transactions in the two facilities in 2018.

Visa’s 10,000 square foot data centre in Singapore is Visa’s first transaction processing centre in Southeast Asia and will serve clients, cardholders and merchants across the region and in Visa’s global network.

As home to our Asia Pacific headquarters, Singapore is already a major hub for the Visa business- Chris Clerk

“As home to our Asia Pacific headquarters, Singapore is already a major hub for the Visa business,” said Chris Clark, group executive, Asia Pacific, Visa. “With our new processing facility in Singapore, we’re strengthening our ability to meet rising demand for digital payments, while driving the pace of payment innovation across the Asia Pacific region.”

Mr Kelvin Wong, Assistant Managing Director, Singapore Economic Development Board, also emphasised Visa’s delight for the choosing Singapur as the location for its new data center, reinforcing Singapore’s position as a trusted business and technology partner. He said the investment strengthens the sophistication of Visa’s business footprint in Singapore and is a testament to Singapore’s regional leadership in data management and connectivity.

The new data centre is said to be Visa’s third major investment in Singapore in the last two years. In September 2016, Visa launched the first international campus of Visa University at its headquarters in Singapore. In April 2016, Visa launched the Singapore Innovation Centre, a destination for clients, partners and developers across the region to work alongside Visa experts and jointly create next-generation commerce applications.

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In June 2016, Visa Inc. announced the completion of its acquisition of Visa Europe, starting a multi-year process to combine the two companies into a unified global organization with a shared technology platform. This integration is said to bring 3,200 European clients onto VisaNet, Visa’s global transaction processing network, and involves a retrofit of Visa’s legacy data center in the UK.

Once fully retrofitted, the 10,000 square foot facility is expected to bring an increase in operational resilience for clients in the region while accelerating the speed-to-market for new payment innovations in the European market.