WageWorks Names Visa as Preferred Brand for Prepaid Employee Benefit Programs

Published on Tuesday, 24 January 2012 08:08 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

SAN FRANCISCO-( Business Wire )-

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) and WageWorks Inc., a leading on-demand provider of tax-advantaged programs for consumer-directed health, commuter, and other employee spending account benefits, today announced a new, multi-year agreement naming Visa as WageWorks’ preferred brand for prepaid employee benefit and health spending cards. Spanning a myriad of consumer directed benefit accounts, the relationship provides employers and their employees with the convenience, security, and reliability of a Visa prepaid card when accessing tax deferred money for qualified purchases.

“By partnering with one of the most highly recognized brands in the world, we are strengthening our commitment to become a world-class provider of benefits services,” said Edgar Montes, SVP of Service Delivery for WageWorks, Inc. “With this arrangement, we are maximizing merchant coverage for all of our products through the use of the Visa product.”

WageWorks provides nearly 10,000 employers with a broad array of consumer-directed benefit accounts, representing 24 percent of Fortune 500 companies and 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies across the U.S. Working with employers, WageWorks helps consumers stay ahead of the rising cost of living, by spending less of the household budget on healthcare and transportation through tax deferred savings programs. WageWorks’ participants can set aside pre-tax money each month, and use a Visa-branded FSA or transportation card for eligible expenses.

In addition, Visa-branded employee benefits cards can increase efficiencies and lower the cost of administering employee benefit programs, while providing a more convenient and secure way for participants to access funds.

“Through our relationship with WageWorks, Visa is delivering the convenience of digital currency to organizations and their employees,” said Hyung Choi, Head of US Prepaid, Visa Inc. “Our relationship with WageWorks delivers the value of the Visa payment network to thousands of employers and millions of consumers through more efficient electronic payment tools. Enhancing benefit accounts with payment card access helps reduce the costs and paperwork for employers and administrators – and helps increase employee satisfaction.”

For more than a decade, Visa has invested in growing the prepaid category in the U.S. and around the world. Visa’s flexible platform enables a diverse set of prepaid products meeting highly specific needs. With a focus on migrating paper-based programs and processes to electronic payments, Visa has established more than 11,000 Visa prepaid programs in 110 countries, delivering greater convenience, choice and security to consumers, businesses, and governments.

For more information about Visa prepaid cards, please visit www.visa.com/prepaid.

About Visa Inc.:

Visa Inc (NYSE:V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products. For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

About WageWorks:

WageWorks Inc. is a leading on-demand provider of tax-advantaged programs for consumer-directed health, commuter and other employee spending account benefits, or CDBs, in the United States. The company administers and operates a broad array of CDBs, including spending account management programs such as health and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts, or FSAs, Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or HRAs, and commuter benefits, such as transit and parking programs.

Corporate headquarters are located in San Mateo, California, and additional facilities are located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, New York , Wisconsin, and Vermont. For more information, please visit www.wageworks.com.

Visa Inc.Lee Mokri, 415-932-2564globalmedia@visa.comORWageWorksBonnie Zelter, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.