Key Bank of Colorado and Visa's Merchant Bank Services unit have installed Visanet POS-port transaction processing at Denver International Airport's parking lot.
The system, in place since July 1, has raised the speed of credit and debit card transactions, Visa said. The average transaction now takes eight to 10 seconds, it said, against 30 seconds before the system was installed.
Credit card acceptance is not limited to Visa cards.
POS-port works by linking all 21 cash registers in the parking exit plaza in a way that enables them to simultaneously process credit card transactions.
Bob Pappenheim, the Keycorp subsidiary's president and chief executive, indicated that his company would soon make additional merchant services available.
"Our ability to provide Denver International Airport with another avenue of payment is only the beginning," he said.
Stevan Berardo, vice president and general manager of Merchant Bank Services, said the high volume of airport traffic was the selling point for POS-port. An estimated 17,000 airport customers pass through the parking exit plaza daily, Visa said.
By using POS-port, the airport "increases its customer-service orientation while parking customers benefit from reduced waiting time and the convenience of a bank card payment option," said Mr. Berardo.
For San Francisco-based Visa, the key aspect of the deal is not that it involves an airport but the relief it offers to a highly congested area. The credit association said it will pursue other opportunities in similarly crowded areas to implement Visanet point of sale services.
In February, Merchant Bank Services joined a marketing alliance promoting electronic payment systems in supermarkets with Southern Datacomm Inc., Midsouth Data Systems Inc., and Fairway Marketing Group. Mr. Berardo said this arrangement was progressing according to plan.
Merchant Bank Services is a member-owned, not-for-profit company formed by Visa U.S.A. to serve as the primary U.S. distributor of its merchant processing services. The unit processed more than 1.6 billion authorizations for Visa member banks in the United States last year.
