Visa Inc. says it has introduced an operating system designed to enhance the capabilities of VisaNet, the San Francisco company's global transaction-processing switch.
Visa worked with IBM Corp. to add the operating system, known as z Transaction Processing Facility, or z/TPF. The system should let Visa manipulate more information at once and perform more-complex processing functions faster, Visa said Monday.
The z/TPF system is expected to reduce the average transaction time to less than one second, from slightly more than one second, according to a Visa representative. The system also will let Visa capture greater amounts of payment data and develop information-intensive applications, such as advanced fraud analysis, the representative said.
"Few people recognize the critical role VisaNet plays in supporting" brand acceptance, Mike Dreyer, Visa's chief information officer, said in a press release.
Visa also said it had opened a data processing center somewhere in the eastern United States, though it declined to disclose the exact location of the 370,000-square-foot facility because of security concerns.
