Visa Expands Global Network of Providers to Drive Acceleration into IoT Payments

Visa has recently announced it has signed 13 new partners to participate in its token service provider (TSP) program, as the payments industry shifts from plastic to digital and broader access to new standards, such as tokenization, is needed, particularly for IoT payments.

With demand expected to increase for payments to be embedded into a growing number of devices, services and experiences, Visa has built out a global network of partners to offer secure, digital payment token services and ensure that, regardless of form factor, an IoT device, appliance, wearable or beyond, can become a more secure place for commerce.

“A potential tidal wave of new payment accounts is approaching - conservative estimates expect 21 billion Internet-connected devices in just three more years, so having both the partner network and the right technology in place are fundamental to driving payments on those devices,” said Jim McCarthy, EVP, innovation and strategic partnerships, Visa. “We are proud to welcome so many great new partners to the token service provider program, to help us extend tokenization to new devices and form factors and give consumers more payment experiences that they love.”

Visa first announced its token service provider program in October 2016 with initial partners Giesecke+Devrient (G+D), Gemalto and Inside Secure. Since then, G+D, FitPay, Infosys, Inside Secure, and Pri-Num, have been Visa Ready-qualified and begun integrations of Visa technology with partners.

“Commerce is quickly spreading from computers, smartphones and tablets to connected endpoints of all shapes and sizes,” said Jordan McKee, principal analyst, 451 Research. “Consumers now expect to be able to purchase goods and services at any given time or place on the device of their choosing. What's more, they expect the experience to be not only secure, but easy-to-use. To meet these elevated demands, commerce stakeholders must collaborate on approaches such as tokenization to ensure security and usability are maintained at scale.”

Any organization interested in working with Visa's global network of token service providers to become a token service requestor can contact Visa directly at [email protected].