VISA opens regional office in Bucharest

May 18, 2005

VISA has opened a regional office in Bucharest, Romania to represent and co-ordinate the activities of the company in Romania and Bulgaria. The Bucharest bureau is the eighth office in the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region, made up of 84 countries.

The use of VISA cards in Romania is currently growing at a fast rate. VISA has 21 member banks in Romania which have issued a total of 2.8 million cards.

The general director of VISA Southeastern Europe and North Africa, Tony Brogna, said that VISA cards embedded with chips would soon be launched on the Romanian market. This comes at a time when several Romanian banks have stated that they are planning to start issuing chip-embedded cards from June this year. Additionally, seven of the eight Central European and Baltic states which joined the European Union in 2004 already use VISA cards embedded with chips.