So . . . I received a text from my Bank telling me about Verified by Visa. What does this mean for me?

Card payments have been in existence in Zambia for the last 20 years or more with the first cards being classified as proprietary debit cards that could only work on the issuing Bank's infrastructure (POS and ATM). Barclays Connect Card and Zanaco 24 cards can be considered to be the pioneers of card based transactions in the country. The Barclays connect card having been launched globally in 1987 takes pride in being the first Debit card to be issued in Zambia.

fast forward to 2017, debit and credit cards are considered to be the most used instrument whether for cash transactions or over the counter payments at POS terminals. with the slow but steadily rising online shopping trends in Zambia, customers have not been spared when it comes to fraud. Millions of Kwacha have been lost by customers due to unauthorized transactions taking place online and at ATMs using skimmed cards. Banks in Zambia had a March 2016 deadline to migrate all Debit cards in issue to a much more secure type of cards technically refereed to as EMV (EuroPay, MasterCard, Visa) compliant otherwise known to the average card holder as Chip and PIN.

migration to EMV Debit Cards protected customers from fraud initiated by the use of skimmed/duplicated cards but they still remained exposed to online banking fraud. This prompted Banks to take further steps to protect customers by implementing a PIN/token based security feature referred to as Verified by Visa (VbV).

VbV is an extra layer of security added to online purchases. it is a global solution designed to make e-Commerce/online transactions secure by ensuring that the payment is made by the rightful owner of the Visa debit card.

upon check out, online shoppers will be presented with the screen below to confirm legitimacy of the transaction:

A One Time Pin (OTP) is delivered to the mobile number which is held by the bank and should be entered in the space provided to authorize the transaction. Often times it is the mobile number on which you receive your transaction related SMS alerts. Ensure that your mobile number is kept up to date with your bank at all times.

Verified by visa in Zambia has so far been implemented on Barclays and Stanbic Bank issued Visa Credit cards as well as Zanaco, UBA, Barclays, Stanbic and Standard Chartered issued Visa Debit Cards.

(VbV image credit: www.smoovpay.com)