Visa is expanding its Visa Ready program to allow IoT manufacturer companies to offer secure payments.
Announced at MWC in Barcelona, Spain, the program allows companies to easily and simply incorporate secure payment into products, with access to Visa tools and resources, including their Digital Enablement Program, which gives access to Visa Token Service (VTS).
It also allows device manufacturers to evaluate and develop new Visa-approved payment methods, and can help merchants accelerate growth by expanding the use of electronic payments.
VTS allows secure mobile and digital payments wherever there is internet connection. VTS replaces sensitive account information on payment cards, such as account numbers, with a unique digital identifier which can be used to process payments.
The first of those to join the Visa Ready Program include Accenture, Coin, Giesecke & Devrient, Fit Pay, and Samsung, who will work will manufacturers such as Chronos and Pebble to embed secure payments in wearables, automobiles and other customer devices which will be certified as Visa Ready.
Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa, said: “More and more, consumers are relying on smart appliances and connected devices to make their lives easier. By adding payments to these devices, we are turning virtually any Internet connection into a commerce experience – making secure payments seamless, and ultimately more accessible, to merchants and consumers.”
Luke Fromowitz, co-founder and CTO at Chronos said: “Chronos believes payment on the wrist is one of those [meaningful] interactions; there is no quicker or more convenient method for payment than tapping your Chronos powered watch at the register. Partnering with Coin and Visa has allowed us to quickly bring this technology to the Chronos platform and help push the standard of payment processes into the future.”
Kanishk Parashar, CEO and co-founder of Coin said: “Coin is excited to be a Visa strategic partner in bringing secure payments to IoT devices. We’re giving wearables makers like Chronos, enabled by Coin, a seamless solution to integrate payment functionality.”
Mobile technology is bringing change to the payment industry, as well as new possibilities for a generation of those relying on connected devises to manage money. According to Cisco, by 2020, 50 billion devices are expected to be IoT enabled, giving opportunity for secure payment to be involved.
To read about how IoT could change retail, click here, or here for some real-life examples of the Internet of Things transforming companies in the retail sector.