BANGALORE, INDIA: Visa and HSBC has announced that the companies have expanded their global relationship to include new debit card programs in a number of countries and territories throughout Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

The five-year regional agreements represent an expansion of HSBC's current credit card issuing relationship with Visa and are the latest milestones in Visa's efforts to combine its global brand and payments expertise with strong local marketplace knowledge and execution to help clients grow their business.

"This deal expands the relationship between two global leaders – HSBC and Visa – in some of the fastest-growing areas in the world," said Hans Morris, president, Visa Inc. "We are delighted by HSBC's decision to enhance our partnership and extend Visa's debit products to new and existing customers across multiple geographies. Importantly, this agreement delivers on our strategy to expand Visa's global debit product offerings as we seek to further the migration from cash and check to Visa payments."

Under terms of the agreement for Asia Pacific, Visa will become HSBC's exclusive partner for new consumer debit products, with HSBC issuing more than 10 million Visa debit cards in Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Visa debit cards are a key element of our customer proposition in the Asia Pacific markets," said Conrado Engel, Regional Director of ASP PFS, HSBC. "HSBC customers will enjoy the benefits provided by HSBC and Visa using the Visa debit card in our direct channels as well as at the merchant point of sale."

Currently, there are approximately 847 million Visa Inc. debit cards globally; representing more than $2.1 trillion in total volume, for the 12 months ended 30 June 2008.