Visa, announced it is accelerating the adoption of secure, digital payments by allowing third party partners to offer Visa Token Service (VTS). By expanding access to VTS to new partners – including technology companies, device manufacturers, issuers, Internet-of-Things (IoT) companies, wallet providers, merchants and others – Visa will be able to more quickly and easily offer secure digital payment services on any device to the market. Giesecke and Devrient, Gemalto and Inside Secure are the initial partners participating in Visa’s token service provider program to offer new expanded access to VTS.

The Visa Token Service standard is a security technology that replaces cardholder information, such as account numbers and expiration dates, with a unique digital identifier (a “token”) that can be used for payment without exposing a cardholder’s more sensitive account information. Tokenization hides consumers’ confidential account information during digital transactions, making digital payments more secure for everyone, everywhere.

Visa’s token service provider program gives technology companies a standards-based approach to access Visa’s broad network of tools and services, including VTS, as well as development and marketing support. It also expands the market to other companies to develop new, secure digital payment services and ensures consistency envisioned in the EMVCo token standards.

“Secure digital payments will take a huge leap forward with Visa’s token service provider program, by accelerating tokenization throughout the industry,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president, innovation & strategic partnerships, Visa Inc. “By expanding tokenization and giving both issuers and token requestors choice, digital payment solutions will continue to grow and give consumers peace of mind when paying on any device.”

There are two ways that Visa partners can take advantage of Visa’s token service provider program:

• Issuer TSPs are certified partners connected to VTS and other networks. They provide solutions for financial institutions to facilitate the provisioning, consumer ID and verification, token lifecycle management and VTS notifications of tokens in participating token requestors payment services. These include services such as Capital One Wallet, PNC Virtual Wallet, U.S. Bank Mobile Wallet, Wells Fargo Wallet, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.
• Token Requestor TSPs are certified partners connected to Visa Token Service and other networks that allow token requestors to develop consumer digital payment solutions powered by VTS. Token Requestor TSPs facilitate the provisioning and lifecycle management of Visa payment tokens across token requestor payment applications and consumer devices, including mobile phones and the expected proliferation of connected devices.

“The integration between G&D and the Visa Token Service extends our leadership as a provider of secure digital payment solutions,” says Stefan Auerbach, member of the management board and head of the mobile security business at Giesecke & Devrient. “Our CONVEGO Hub solution offers seamless access to secure mobile payment services to Visa issuers, and gives manufacturers of wearables, mobile devices and other wallet providers secure and flexible payment functionality.”

“Gemalto as a long time promoter of a secure digital payment ecosystem is pleased to partner with Visa,” says Jean Claude Deturche, SVP of Mobile Financial Services at Gemalto. “Our numerous payment issuers’ customers will be offered the possibility to use VTS to accelerate the deployment of their digital payment services on multiple wallets and devices.”

“Inside Secure is at the forefront of the secure payment ecosystem and it is extremely exciting to extend our partnership with Visa,” says Andrew McLennan, EVP Mobile Security Division at Inside Secure. “The flexibility of the Visa TSP program will allow us to fast track IoT device and wearable manufacturers into the digital payment ecosystem as well as continuing to service our existing Visa issuers and wallet creators.”

An organization can request to become a token service provider through participating in the Visa Ready Tokenization program. Please contact Visa directly at TokenServiceProvider@visa.com. Visa will provide a program overview and the relevant documents necessary to proceed.