Visa has unveiled a suite of new digital-first products and services that it claims will revolutionise the card and address the future needs of businesses, merchants and consumers and the financial institutions that serve them
Set for roll out over the coming, year, the new product roadmap was unveiled at the annual Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco.
“The industry is at a pivotal point - new technologies like Gen AI are rapidly shifting how we shop and manage our finances,” says Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer, Visa. “We’re announcing the next generation of truly digital-native payment card experiences. Today we unveiled new card features and digital innovations that will bring consumers into a more customized, convenient and secure future.”
The new products and services include Visa Flexible Credentials, which will allow a single card product to toggle between payment methods, enabling users to set parameters or choose whether they use debit, credit, 'pay-in-four' with buy now, pay late,r or pay using rewards points. Visa Flexible Credential is live in Asia and will be launching with Affirm later this summer in the US.
Visa is also introducing a slew of new ways to use the card when tapped on a mobile device, such as:
- Tap to Confirm: Easily authenticates identity when shopping online
- Tap to Add Card: Enhances security when adding card into a wallet or app
- Tap to P2P (person-to-person): Allows money to be sent between family and friends
To bolster security and protect user identities, the card scheme is introducing a Payment Passkey service to replacing the need for passwords by confirming a consumer’s identity and authoring online payments with a quick scan of their biometrics like a face or fingerprint. When shopping online, Visa passkeys replace the need for passwords or one-time codes, enabling more streamlined, secure transactions.
“There is a global desire to find commonality, interoperability and simplicity for online payments. Our passkeys, designed specifically for payments, represent a massive paradigm shift in our industry because it confirms identity without interrupting the checkout experience,” says Forestell. “Visa Payment Passkey Service increases security while reducing friction when you pay online, across any device or website, globally.”
As its first deployment, Visa is integrating Passkeys with its online checkout service Click to Pay, partnering with issuers to enable Click to Pay and Visa Payment Passkey Service on new Visa cards.
The card scheme is also jumping into the emerging account-to-account payment space with Pay By Bank ,using technology from Swedish acquisition Tink. Already available across Europe, this product was rolled out to the US market late last month.
In terms of security for fast payment methods, Pay by Bank will come with its own security overlay to detect fraud in real time. Live in Latin America and piloting in the UK, Visa says uts Protect for A2A Payments product is already identifying 60% of real-time payments fraud and scams previously undetected by financial institutions.
Finally, Visa will begin the roll out of 'data tokens', which let consumers consent to sharing their data as they shop online, then see where it’s been shared and revoke access right from their banking app.
With data tokens, merchanta can request consent from the consumer to get more personalised offers as they shop. If the consumer agrees, behind-the-scenes, Visa issues a private data token to the merchant complete with AI-generated insights based on the consumer’s transaction data. The data token can be used with the merchant’s AI models to deliver real-time recommendations for the shopper.
Consumers will be able view where their data has been shared through their mobile bankingg app and revoke access rights with a swipe.