MUMBAI: Visa International has unveiled new brand identity. The company's Reliance Any Time Money Card will be the first Visa payment product that will have the new Visa brand identity and design in India.

The change includes a new look for the blue, white and gold Visa logo as well as a change in several card design features. Visa International has introduced a new card design and branding globally to provide enhanced security features and offer member financial institutions increased business opportunities.

Commenting on the new brand being launched in India, Visa International Asia Pacific country manager - South Asia Santanu Mukherjee said, "The Visa brand has always stood for the highest level of security, convenience and flexibility. Today, Visa is much more than a credit card company. Visa symbolises credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments, as well as interbank money transfers. This new and evolved brand design reinforces the Visa brand promise, responds to the evolving payment industry needs and is not restricted to a particular payment segment or channel but can be used in multiple environments and for multiple payment types and services. We will work closely with our member banks, merchants, partners and other agencies to ensure that the benefits of the new design meet their full potential."

"Member banks in India issuing new cards or replacing old cards will begin to do so with the new Visa logo and brand identity and enhanced security features. This will be a gradual process over the next couple of years before all Visa-branded cards will sport the new logo and card design features in India. Until then, consumers can continue to use their valid Visa cards to make purchases and avail of the benefits of paying by plastic," he added.

The new design includes an innovative holographic magnetic stripe on the back of the card. This new security component combines the ‘easy to recognise-difficult to reproduce’ hologram with the functionality of the magnetic stripe, making the card more difficult for fraudsters to reproduce and easier for merchants to recognize.

Visa has also enhanced the signature panel with a tamper-evident element and a ‘Void’ pattern underneath to provide extra levels of security. The new design supports the inclusion of the EMV chip, which has seen a significant uptake of over 35 million cards in Asia Pacific.

Visa’s brand framework is being updated so that it reflects the growing choice of payment products and services that are available to buyers and sellers worldwide. The Visa brand framework has been made more flexible so that it can support new products and services both now and in the future and can take advantage of new areas of opportunity.

As part of the updated brand framework, the Visa mark or logo has evolved into a fresh, contemporary look, which ultimately will be featured on all materials including merchant decals and Visa payment cards. The new design continues to use many of the successful features from the current Visa design, including prominent use of the Visa brand name, the blue, white and gold colors, and the italicized typestyle.

The new design allocates more surface area to member banks for their business or brand messages. Member banks will have more flexibility to make distinct, creative changes to the design, colour, shape and layout of the Visa cards they issue.