Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Visa Inc. is heralding a number of advances in payments technologies, among them the growth of digital-identity services related to payments, continued contactless-payments penetration, and progress with its Flex Credential.
Visa said its efforts to create secure digital-identity technology, aimed at making the checkout more secure, is advancing. Central to that effort is network tokenization, with nearly 50% of Visa’s digital transactions now using that technology. Tokenization masks the original primary account number and can be tied to a specific transaction so that any associated transaction data is rendered worthless should a criminal get access to it. Visa says more than 1 billion tokens were added in the last quarter.
Visa, at its Visa Payment Forum in Dallas this week, also said its Visa Payment Passkey service is rolling out globally. This service replaces passwords with a biometric identifier, such as a fingerprint or facial recognition. Visa Payment Passkey, like many other passkey services, is built on protocols from the FIDO Alliance. The Alliance standards have similarities to two-factor or multifactor authentication but don’t put user data on the Internet, employ biometrics, a security key, or a local PIN code.
Visa also is expanding use of its Flex Credential, a type of card that enables cardholders to use a single Visa credential to toggle between debit, immediate purchase, credit, and buy now, pay later options. Installment-payment provider Affirm Inc. launched Flex in the United States, and Visa says it is working with Klarna AB to offer Flex in Europe. Currently, 5 million Visa cardholders use the Flex credential, Visa says.
In an update on contactless payments, Visa said more than 60% of its transactions are now made with a tap to pay interface in the United States.
