"Debit is one of the fastest growing segments in the credit card segment and India with a banking population exceeding 200 million bank account holders offers enormous potential for debit cards," Rahul Khosla, country manager (South Asia), Visa International said.

Targeted at consumers averse to credit, Khosla said that debit card will specially appeal to the Indian middle class, who want the convenience and security of a payment card as well as on-line access to their bank accounts.

Around eight Visa member banks including Citibank, Anz Grindlays and HDFC are expected to launch Visa Electron this year, he said.

On future plans, he said apart from enhancing the card base, increasing acceptance of cards in the country will be one of the key priority area for Visa.

"Visa has constituted an "acceptance development task force" in partnershipwith member banks", he said, adding that the task force is conducting a research in India aimed at understanding the categories of merchants that can be developed, cities which can be penetrated and barriers to acceptance of cards," Khosla said.

In order to increase penetration, Visa is planning to enter into non-traditional segments like education, healthcare and utility areas like electricity bills, telephone bills etc, Khosla said.

He said visa has entered into a strategic alliance with equifax venture infotek to develop the payment infrastructure and provide the platform for debit products which depend on a terminalised environment.

Visa is also concentrating on expanding geographic acceptance of cards to more cities by partnering with its members and technology providers to develop the acquiring and issuing infrastructure in the country as also expanding penetration among existing merchant establishments through merchant seminars and education.

Indian cardholders will be able to use visaelectroncards at over 5,000 points of sale and 100 ATMs all over the country, he added.

Worldwide, Visa debit products registered a growth rate of 30 to 35 per cent in comparison to a growth rate of about 10 per cent in the credit segment.

Visa International's annual volume in debit stood at $ 554 billion in 1998. It achieved Rs 3,500 crore card sales volume in India in both domestic and international segments.