How often do you give much thought to your card swipe? It’s become so commonplace that I doubt you think of it at all – and that’s how it's supposed to be. Fast, easy and a complete non-event so you can be on your way in no time at all - often just a second before you’re prompted for your signature, or directly given your receipt.

What’s amazing is to find out what happens in that second between the swipe and the receipt – funds are verified, the transaction is analyzed for fraud risk, an approval is rendered and recorded and a transaction fee is applied. And the whole transaction is a simultaneous customer experience for you, the merchant, the financial institution and the payment processor, such as Visa.

Visa has been a pioneer in cashless payment processing for over 50 years and has grown to become one of the world’s most recognized brands. And one of the drivers of their recognition has been their ability to provide a consistent and secure transaction millions of times throughout the world around the clock. One of the most important priorities has been to operate on that real-time basis and maintain the integrity of the transaction - every time.

At any given time and in any given transaction, Visa analyzes up to 500 unique variables in real time to assess the risk of that transaction. With analytics and by using vast data sets, including global fraud hotspots and transactional patterns, the company can more accurately assess whether your transaction is legitimate or if someone stole your credit card. And that’s all done in real-time! Visa estimates that analytics has the potential to prevent an incremental $2 Billion of fraudulent payment volume annually.

For more details on this fascinating story, tune in to the short video below featuring Visa executive Nathan Falkenborg describing the impact that analytics has on the card-swiping customers’ experience.