Visa to Use Sun Microsystems Computers for Home Banking

Visa International has tapped Sun Microsystems Computer Co. to provide the computer hardware to be used in the card association's electronic commerce offerings through banks.

The San Francisco-based credit card association will employ Sun's client-server-style workstations and servers for transaction processing and database operations.

Through its Visa Interactive unit, Visa already has started to stake its territory in the electronic commerce frontier. It has signed more than 30 banks for its rapidly growing raft of remote banking and shopping services.

Fast on the heels of a similar deal with Interactive Transaction Partners - the home banking joint venture formed by Electronic Data Systems Corp., France Telecom, and U.S. West - this agreement represents a valuable and significant boost for Sun Microsystems.

The multi-million dollar deal positions the hardware vendor well for additional alliances in this fast-growing area of business for bank and related companies.

"Sun is attempting to position itself in the center of the home banking infrastructure," according to Mark Hardie, an analyst for the Tower Group, a Wellesley, Mass.-based bank consulting firm.

The market for services that allow consumers to shop and bank at home promises to grow in leaps and bounds over the next decade. Some analysts estimate revenues from the business may grow to more $1 billion by the year 2000.

Whereas many software and hardware companies seem to be vying for the desktop, Sun is battling to gain a foothold on the back end of the home banking process. This approach may serve Sun well, as home banking transactions will need to be processed regardless of the front end device.

Visa Interactive has been using Sun computers for its host processing of remote backing transactions for three years now, according to Fraser Bullock, president and chief operating officer of Visa Interactive.

Mr. Bullock views this deal as a "significant scaling up" of their current relationship and a vote of confidence for client-server computing.

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