News

Visa launches new tools to secure payments from Internet-connected devices and wearables

July 24, 2014

Visa Inc. today announced the creation of Visa Digital Solutions, what the card company said is a comprehensive suite of offerings that facilitate secure payments across a broad range of Internet-connected devices and wearables.

Visa in the press release cited a Forrester report that found commerce initiated with mobile phones and tablets is expected to total $114 billion in the U.S. alone this year. Two-thirds of those sales will happen via tablet computers, while the remainder will occur on mobile phones.

"Visa Digital Solutions provides the standards, tools and services to turn any Internet-connected device into a secure vehicle for commerce," Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of Visa, said in a statement. "Smartphone manufacturers can securely load a Visa account within a device, merchants can directly embed Visa payment functionality into their mobile apps and financial institutions can offer mobile and online payments as part of their mobile banking applications."

Visa Digital Solutions fall into two main categories, according to the press release.

Making a purchase with a mobile device at a physical retailer or online is becoming commonplace, particularly in countries with a high penetration of smartphones, according to the statement. Visa is extending its support for mobile payments to enable retailers, financial institutions and developers to create new ways to pay via smartphones:

• Wave-to-pay: Visa recently published a software development kit to make it easier for merchants, financial institutions and application developers to embed Visa payWave, Visa's mobile payment technology, into their mobile applications. Issuers now have the option to host the Visa account information in a virtual cloud or in a secure chip on the mobile device.
• Scan-to-pay: In June Visa published an initial specification for presenting Visa account information in the form of a quick response code. The specification provides retailers with a new, secure option to accept a Visa payment by simply scanning a QR code on a smartphone screen.
• Click-to-pay: Last week Visa announced the launch of Visa Checkout, a payment service that enables consumers throughout the United States, Canada and Australia to pay for goods online, on any device, in just a few clicks. Visa's application programming interfaces for Visa Checkout are available to merchant developers, as well as SDKs for in-app payments.

The second part of Visa Digital Solutions is technology that protects consumers and supports industry innovation, according to the press release. In September, Visa said it will introduce a tokenization service that strengthens payment security while facilitating industry innovation. The new Visa Token Service enables:

• Consumer Protection: Tokens replace the 16-digit account information found on plastic cards with a numeric substitute, facilitating payment transactions without sharing sensitive account information.
• Industry Innovation: Tokens can be stored directly in mobile devices, online e-commerce applications and cloud-based mobile applications, which will spur new commerce experiences.
• Restricted Use: Tokens can be limited for use with specific merchants, mobile devices or types of purchases.
• Convenience and Cost Effectiveness: Tokens linked to lost or stolen mobile devices can be instantly reissued without changing account numbers or reissuing plastic cards.
• Easy Processing: Tokens are based on existing ISO standards and can therefore be processed and routed by merchants, acquirers and issuers like traditional card payments.

Many offerings within the Visa Digital Solutions suite are available today, with the full range of capabilities expected to be commercially available in the U.S. by January 2015, and global rollouts throughout the year, according to the announcement. Visa Digital Solutions will initially be available through the Visa Ready program, which provides companies a path for the certification of devices, software and products used to initiate or accept Visa payments. Visa will also launch an extended Developer Center in early 2015, providing product specifications, APIs, SDKs, as well as implementation guidelines for financial institutions, merchants and third-party payment providers, according to the announcement.