This Financial Literacy Month, Visa helps kids learn practical money skills with new currency identifier app

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - November 01, 2016) - In celebration of Financial Literacy Month, Visa today launched Peter Pig's Money Counter, an innovative and engaging app designed to teach children fundamental concepts of money by learning to identify and count coins. Available free in English and French for smartphone and tablet, the app is available in the iTunes App Store or on www.practicalmoneyskills.ca. Peter Pig's Money Counter, designed for children age 5-8, offers players identifying, counting and sorting challenges and facts about Canadian currency. As a reward, players can then choose whether to 'save' or 'spend' their virtual earnings on fun accessories for Peter Pig.

"Peter Pig's Money Counter can help parents introduce the concept of money by showing kids what Canadian coins look like and how much they are worth," said Carla Hindman, Head of Financial Education, Visa Canada. "It's never too early to start imparting these important lessons to kids, and this user-friendly educational app is an easy tool for parents to use to help get their kids started."

For nearly 20 years in Canada, Visa has been a private sector leader in developing innovative, free programs to help Canadians effectively learn the fundamentals of personal finance, including budgeting, saving, responsible spending and financial goal-setting. Visa is a supporter of the National Strategy for Financial Literacy - Count me in, Canada, launched by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. The strategy was designed to mobilize and engage the public, private and non-profit sectors to strengthen the financial literacy of Canadians. Supporting the strategy demonstrates Visa's commitment to the delivery of new financial literacy initiatives.

"It's efforts like these that help strengthen the knowledge, skills and confidence of Canadians, and increase their ability to make responsible financial decisions," said Jane Rooney, Financial Literacy Leader. "Since it's never too early to start teaching kids about money, it is great to see the availability of apps like this one that help kids learn about the basics of money while having fun."

Visa Canada's Practical Money Skills website offers consumers, parents, educators and students access to free educational resources, including cost calculators, budget templates, games, quizzes, and more. Visa also offers Choices & Decisions, a teacher-developed curriculum program available in both English and French that provides practical, ready-to-use lesson plans for use in Canadian classrooms.

To download the Peter Pig's Money Counter App on the iPhone and Tablet: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/peter-pigs-money-counter-canadian/id1093984756?mt=8, or play online at: http://practicalmoneyskills.ca/games/peterpigs/

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world's most advanced processing networks -- VisaNet -- that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products. For more information, visit visa.ca and @VisaNewsCA.