Visa Europe today announced the availability of a new pan-European service designed to support the roll-out of Visa issuers’ mobile contactless payment programmes. The new service is said to provide a highly secure application management capability for new “mobile cards” stored inside mobile handsets. The service leverages Visa issuers’ existing connections to Visa’s authorisation and payment processing systems and is designed to reduce the cost associated with launching new mobile contactless services while providing a scalable platform for commercialisation.
“Leveraging the advantages that mobile capability can offer to payments requires more than simply making the phone interact like a plastic card, and commercialisation requires many pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle to be in place,” commented Sandra Alzetta, Head of Innovation at Visa Europe. “As NFC handsets and contactless accessories for existing phones become available and the contactless acceptance infrastructure grows, Visa is ensuring that the back-end technologies to support mobile contactless launches are designed for scale and maximum security.”
The Visa Mobile Gateway and Key Management Service have been designed to offer Visa issuers a secure connection between their issuing host systems – already connected to Visa’s Authorisation Systems – and the Visa Mobile Payment Application which resides in a chip in the handset. The Visa Mobile Gateway is integrated into Visa’s Authorisations systems which process over 9 billion transactions a year in Europe. Visa issuers can use the system to interact with the Visa Mobile Payment Application that is stored securely in a Secure Element, or hardware chip, inside the phone. This chip can be either an embedded chip, a removable memory card, or a SIM card. The service enables basic application and account management, including passcode or “PIN” reset, periodic updates of the Visa application for operations such as offline counter reset, and balance enquiry. Visa is also enabling the top-up of prepaid mobile applications through the system.
Sandra Alzetta continued: “We know from extensive research and trials that whilst consumers strongly recognise the benefits of mobile payments, security is a concern. This new service is designed to provide Visa issuers with tools to reassure consumers that mobile contactless payments are safe to use and to evolve from pilots to commercial roll-out.”
Visa Europe will be offering the service for new mobile contactless projects in countries where Visa issuers have already implemented or have launched contactless card programmes. Currently, Visa contactless card programmes have been launched in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey and UK. Visa Europe has also launched mobile contactless projects in Finland, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and UK.