Visa aims its secure payments tech at cloud-based banking apps

The payments firm is expanding the scope of its tokenisation service

Payments giant Visa is looking to venture deeper into the cloud and connected devices space by offering its tokenisation service to a wider range of banking services.

It will offer its tokenisation services, which help secure digital and mobile payments, to banks that offer their customers apps that store payment credentials in the cloud.

Sandra Alzetta, executive director of product enablement at Visa Europe, said the expansion of the Visa Europe Payment Tokenisation Service (VEPTS) is a response to the forecasted growth of more digital payment technologies.

"By 2020, our projections are for one in five consumers to pay for items using their smartphone on a daily basis and for payments on mobile or tablet to account for more than 50 percent of Visa transactions," she said.

"Looking at contactless as an early indicator, where adoption has doubled and spend has trebled in the last year, we believe this projection could well be a conservative estimate.

"By expanding our service to make tokenisation available to our client banks through a number of new technology partners, consumers will have access to all manner of fantastic new payment experiences accessible through their mobile phones, tablets and all manner of other ‘connected' devices."

To capitalise upon this forecast, VEPTS will also be offered to secure payment features in wearable and connected devices, such as smartwatches.

It can also be used to secure internet browser-based wallets and payment services specific to retailers through the Visa Checkout service, along with "card on file" payment options commonly used by major online retailers.

Many people fear the security risks from hackers swiping credit card details when carrying out digital payments online or via mobile devices, but Visa's tokenisation services enable payments without surrendering credit card details on the route between payee and bank.

It works by substituting credit card details and account information with a series of numbers. These "tokens" are then submitted to a payment service and eventually translated by the customer's bank to authorise the payment.

The system means that no financially compromising numbers are transmitted by the payment app, device or online service, so even if hackers were able to swipe the token they would not be able to translate it into any usable information.

This secure form of payment helps to support Apple Pay, which launched in the UK last year.

Visa is keen to find new ways to facilitate secure payments having recently teamed up with security firm FireEye to launch a threat intelligence portal designed to combat financial crime.