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Visa opens up its technology to developers
Software developers at fintech companies and banks are to be given access to Visa’s technology
Visa is giving software developers access to its payments technology to enable them to develop products and services to complement it, as consumers demand easier-to-use and more secure payment systems.
Like many in the traditional financial services sector, Visa is taking up the fintech challenge and supporting its progression rather than trying to defeat it.
By enabling developers to use its technology through application programming interfaces (APIs), Visa will ensure its payments technology remains in a sector that being shaken up by the fintech revolution.
This is critical because, according to research by EY, money payments and transfers are the most common reason for using fintechs, with 17.6% of respondents to a survey having used them at least once in the past year.
The Visa Developer platform, as it is known, has already been trialled by finance firms and technology companies, including Capital One, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank, TD Bank, Scotiabank and VenueNext.
Initially, Visa will open up services such as account holder identification, person-to-person payment capabilities, secure in-store and online payment services, currency conversion and consumer transaction alerts. Access to further services is planned over the next year.
Ahead of the launch, Visa’s IT team created payment products and services APIs, the standard technology used by developers to build software and applications.
“We are unbundling Visa’s full suite of products and services and giving developers open access to the underlying payment capabilities,” said Rajat Taneja, executive vice-president of technology at Visa.
Read more about Visa payments technology
- Visa introduces service to prevent card transactions being declined when user is overseas by checking their mobile phone is in the same place in real time.
- Visa makes a number of enhancements around its mobile payments strategy ahead of Mobile World Congress 2015.
- Visa has announced it will expand its V.me digital wallet into eight new regions by the end of 2014.
“We believe this will lead to the creation of entirely new commerce experiences with Visa technology integrated to enable greater security, scale and convenience when it is time to pay.
“When you add the ability to distribute those new experiences across Visa’s global network, you can see why Visa Developer will become the preferred playground for developers everywhere.”
The initiative created a developer portal to search Visa’s extensive suite of payment products and services, an open platform that provides access to hundreds of Visa APIs and software development kits, a testing sandbox, and Visa Developer engagement centres to support developer collaboration and co-creation.
Alison James, vice president, cards technology at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, said the platform would help to simplify the delivery of easy access payment systems and increase speed to market.
“It is encouraging to see partners like Visa continue to bring innovation to life and take another step forward in the advancement of integrated and adaptable payment technologies,” she said.
