Visa Launches Tools To Help Partners Create Digital Card Services

Visa, the credit card issuer, announced Thursday (May 4) that it will help its financial institution partners create customized digital card management services for their customers.

In a press release, Visa said as the Internet of Things (IoT) grows, consumers put their cards on file and implement recurring payments in more places.

To help give consumers more visibility and control, Visa is creating capabilities that will complement several existing Visa functionalities. These capabilities will be available for issuing partners to provide to their cardholders through their online and mobile banking channels.

Visa said the new capabilities will let issuers provide their Visa cardholders greater control and insight over how they pay, where they pay and who can pay using a digital version of their Visa card.

“As consumers become more connected, it is increasingly important for cardholders to be able to manage digital payment activities in one central location,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships, Visa Inc., in the press release. “With these new capabilities, we are enabling our financial institution partners to deliver greater control, increased insights and enhanced security to their cardholders who make digital payments.”

The new offerings will build on existing capabilities of Visa Token Service (VTS) to let issuers create a customizable suite of services to offer to their Visa cardholders. Visa Token Service replaces sensitive account information found on payment cards, such as the 16-digit account number, expiration date and security code, with a unique digital identifier that can be used to process payments without exposing actual account details.

Among the new capabilities is the Visa Network Hub Push Provisioning capability, which will provide one integration point to interface with participating VTS token requestors. When implemented by an issuer, this would allow their Visa cardholders to easily add a digital version of their Visa card to participating VTS token requestors through the issuer’s mobile banking app or online banking channel.

Visa is also developing a new Visa Card-on-File Data API that will provide issuers with details around merchants where a consumer has stored their card on file. The API will scan transaction history and identify card-on-file transactions, such as bill pay or subscriptions, providing Visa cardholders with additional insight into where their card is stored. Additionally, an issuer will receive information about where their customers’ cards are updated in the event of a reissuance, due to reasons like expiration or loss of card, Visa said in the press release.