Visa is Partnering with Banks Across the Globe to Expand HCE Services

Visa has announced that it partnered with several leading financial institutions worldwide to offer new mobile payment services. BBVA and Cuscal launched new issuer-branded mobile payment applications for mobile devices running on Android. Banco do Brazil, PNC Bank, N.A., and U.S. Bank intend to launch similar capabilities soon.

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To use these new mobile payment services, consumers simply download their financial institution’s mobile payment app from the Google Play store. Then, following a one-time enrollment process, customers of participating financial institutions who download and install the application will be able to pay in-store with their Visa accounts by waving their Android mobile phone in front of a contactless reader. These capabilities are an integral part of Visa Digital Solutions, a comprehensive suite of offerings that facilitates secure payments across a wide range of Internet-connected devices and wearables.

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A year ago, at Mobile World Congress 2014, Visa launched a new technology that provides financial institutions, merchants, and developers the ability to deploy mobile payment apps with Android devices securely. Specifically, Visa offered capabilities that gave financial institutions the option to take advantage of Host Card Emulation (HCE), a new feature in the Android mobile operating system that allows any NFC application on an Android device to emulate a smart card.

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This recent announcement is a testament to the flexibility of Visa Digital Solutions, which includes Visa’s software development kit (SDK) and the Visa Token Service. Visa Token Service is an innovative technology that replaces sensitive payment account information found on plastic cards, such as the 16-digit personal account number, expiration date, and security code, with a unique series of numbers that can be used for payment without exposing the underlying account details. Visa Token Service is the foundation for Visa mobile payments through Apple Pay, HCE, and other digital payments apps coming to the market.

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Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital solutions at Visa Inc., said in an official press release, “2015 is the year in which fast and safe mobile payments based on Visa technology will proliferate across the world. We are very proud that Visa Digital Solutions is now accessible to the broader market to be used across multiple devices and form factors – enabling secure, fast, and engaging commerce experiences in any environment.”

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