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Visa Inc. this week launched its prepaid employee benefit program in Colombia following the service's introduction in Brazil, José Maria Ayuso, Visa's regional head of products, Latin America, tells CardLine Global. Visa Vale enables consumers to use prepaid cards and PINs at selected merchants to buy food, fuel and health care without opening bank accounts. The cards serve as part of employee fringe-benefit programs that generally arose in France following War II, Ayuso explains. In the past, consumers would use paper vouchers. Banks issue the cards and merchants pay varying rates of interchange to accept them. Employers also pay fees that vary by company size, he says. Consumers in Colombia can use the cards at some 14,000 merchant locations, out of a total Visa card-acceptance network of about 150,000 merchant locations. Ayuso anticipates that some 500,000 Colombian consumers will have the cards by year's end.
