The first implementation is being piloted in Russia and Europe with Visa member banks, mobile operators, and technology providers.

Arcot is the leading provider of e-payment card authentication solutions, the essential ingredient to any secure online transaction. More than 10,000 card-issuing financial institutions rely on Arcot's TransFort payment authentication solution. Many of the financial industry's payment processors and more than 20,000 merchants additionally use TransFort to protect the digital identities of millions of consumers worldwide.

Arcot was the first software provider to enable 3-D Secure-protected mobile telephone transactions via its patented TransFort authentication platform. TransFort offers payment authentication solutions for all parties of an online transaction, including issuing banks, payment processors, online merchants, and merchant aggregators.

"Arcot is proud to participate in this important initiative," said Ram Varadarajan, CEO of Arcot Systems. "Visa International has a reputation for its progressive attitude towards adopting new technologies and for its high level of market-responsiveness. The extension of the VbV program to mobile devices is an important milestone in the development of a secure global mobile e-commerce model."

The extension to mobile devices will help promote and grow the use of secure online shopping in Visa's CEMEA region (Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa).

"The number of mobile phones is expanding rapidly in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and users are increasingly demanding new services," said Oleg Makhotin, Head of New Technologies for the Visa Russia & CIS region. "We believe that by joining our Mobile Bank with the VbV project, Arcot will be supporting Visa to ensure that consumers have the ability to conduct commerce everywhere, anytime, and any way they want it."