The programs in New York and Los Angeles are part of Visa’s long-term strategy of extending the speed, security and convenience of Visa acceptance to new locations. As part of this strategy, Visa has successfully brought payment services to commuters in the world’s most populous areas, including Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Singapore, London and Paris. In driving acceptance at the mass transit fare gate, Visa is providing riders with a better way to pay by eliminating the time-consuming step of searching for cash to buy a ticket while minimizing cash handling costs for transit operators. The pilot program in New York uses Visa payWave technology, which is based on a small electronic chip embedded in a mobile phone or payment card that communicates with contactless readers at the fare gate and on the bus. Transit riders pay by holding their Visa payWave-enabled mobile phone or card near the designated reader at the fare gate. The program in Los Angeles is exclusive to Visa and started September 15, 2010 and is a system wide commercial implementation available to all riders of the LA Metro system. The TAP ReadyCARD combines Visa prepaid functionality with the LA Metro’s TAP (Transit Access Pass) proprietary transit application on a single card. http://corporate.visa.com