VISA Encourages Innovation By Opening Visa Developer To Outsider Developers
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The move transforms the world’s largest retail payments network to an open platform.
Visa Inc. has announced the launch of Visa Developer, marking the transformation of the world’s largest retail payments network into an open platform designed to drive innovation in payments and commerce.
“The convergence of web, mobile and social networks is revolutionizing the way people buy and sell, and is driving the creation of new and innovative ways to pay,” said Jim McCarthy, global head of product for Visa Inc. in a statement.
The new platform is designed to aid financial institutions, merchants, and technology companies innovate and create new devices to shop, pay, and get paid, thus meeting the evolving needs of consumers and merchants.
The Visa company statement explains, “At launch, the new platform will offer access to some of Visa’s most popular 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.” Visa also plans to add access to other payment capabilities in the next 12 months.
“As the leader in payments we have an opportunity to transform global commerce by opening-up access to our global network and supporting our clients, industry partners and innovators in their pursuit of creating new, easier and more secure ways to pay,” said Charlie Scharf, chief executive officer, Visa Inc. “Visa Developer represents not only a new access point to our network, but a new distribution platform for Visa products and services globally.”
Visa has already engaged in beta trials of the new platform with leading financial institutions, technology companies, and startups, resulting in several new innovative prototype applications using Visa technology. Trial partners include Capital One, CIBC, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank (NAB), RBC, TD Bank, ScotiaBank, TSYS, U.S. Bank, and VenueNext.
“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, Visa Inc. “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 comes 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.”
Visa’s launch clients and partners are excited about the possibilities provided by the new platform. “Visa’s new Developer platform will help simplify the delivery of easy access payment solutions for our clients and we are excited about its potential to increase our speed to market in some areas,” says Alison James, vice president, Cards Technology, CIBC. “It’s 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.”
Visa’s move is big news in payments, where no dominant model has emerged to digitize and streamline payments. Open-source development could meant that there will soon be many more ways to pay—and Visa is positioned to be at the center of those purchases.