Visa Europe is planning to launch a ‘tokenisation’ service for the European market, in an attempt to make contactless payment procedures via smartphones more secure.
The service is designed to substitute the payment account information found in credit cards with a series of random numbers, which can be used to make payments without exposing real account details.
Visa Europe said that while making the contactless payment, a token will be submitted instead of the account details.
According to the Visa Europe, the service is aimed towards meeting the demand of consumers for the use of smartphones and wearable devices for payments, and for financial intuitions’ to adapt to the changing scenarios.
The service is likely to combat fraud, by giving control to the financial institutions with the use of the token.
According to reports, the service is likely to speed up the arrival of Apple Pay and other mobile payment services to be introduced in the continent.
Visa Europe and other financial intuitions are struggling to stay relevant as intermediaries that connect banks and consumers due to the threat posed by tech majors like Apple and Google who have their own paynment systems, reported Reuters.
Visa Europe Core Products executive director Sandra Alzetta said: "Tokenisation is one of the most important technologies to emerge in digital payments and has the potential to start a whole new chapter in the kinds of products that are developed.
"For that reason, we’ve designed this flexible and scalable service, enabling issuers, merchants and acquirers to provide consumers with the next generation of innovative payment methods – all with the high level of security they expect."
