CW Developer Network

Visa Developer launches: that priceless API will do nicely

Adrian Bridgwater
Adrian Bridgwater

Mastercard has ‘Priceless’ and American Express has ‘That’ll do nicely’ and ‘Don’t leave home without it’, but what does Visa have?

The answer appears to be the (arguably less catchy) ‘It’s everywhere you want to be’ and ‘More people go with Visa’, or so it seems.

Perhaps Visa will come up with a catchier catchline for its newly launched Visa Developer programme.

Targeted at software application developers (obviously), Visa developer is hoped to help move the Visa retail payments network to an open platform that will drive new software developments in payments and commerce — and those developments are hoped to come from financial institutions, merchants and technology companies

Charlie Scharf, chief executive officer, Visa Inc has said that at launch, the new platform offers access to some of Visa’s payment technologies and services including account holder identification, person-to-person payment capabilities, secure in-store and online payment services such as Visa Checkout, currency conversion and consumer transaction alerts.

Beta trial partners have already created prototype applications including Capital One, CIBC, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank (NAB), RBC, TD Bank, Scotiabank, TSYS, U.S. Bank and VenueNext.

Open platform components here include:

  • A globally accessible developer portal.
  • An open platform that provides access to Visa APIs and software development kits.
  • A testing sandbox that offers application developers a plug and play experience, as well as access to Visa test data.

Visa’s vision for its global developer engagement program includes the creation of a marketplace for financial institutions, merchants and technology companies to collaborate on digital commerce applications and services.

Does Visa need a developer catchiline now?

How about ‘That priceless API will do nicely, don’t enter your SDK without it’? Nah… turns out it’s ‘Deliver the commerce experience of tomorrow’… hmm, still needs work.